Aga Khan School, Dhaka Explained

The Aga Khan School, Dhaka
Location:Primary section: Road # 9, Sector # 4
Junior section: Road # 6, Sector # 4
Senior section: Road # 6A, Sector # 4
Postcode:1230
Coordinates:23.8607°N 90.4022°W (senior building)
Type:Private
Grades:12
Head:Dale Taylor
Head Name:Head of Education
Enrollment:1,222 (2013)[1]
Faculty:118 (2013)

The Aga Khan School, Dhaka, is an English Medium School, in Uttara, Dhaka[2] under the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN) and the Aga Khan Education Service, Bangladesh (AKES,B). It is one of the earliest private English Medium schools in Bangladesh founded in 1988,[3] in a small campus in Siddeshwari, Dhaka.

History

The Aga Khan School, Dhaka, was formed back in 1988, in the library of the Ismaili Tariqah and Religious Education Board (ITREB), an institution of the Aga Khan Education Service, Bangladesh. The foundations of the present system were laid by Sir Sultan Mohamed Shah, Aga Khan III, under whose guidance, over 200 schools were established during the first half of the 20th century, the first of them in 1905 in Zanzibar, Gwadur in Pakistan and Mundra in India. Since the creation of Aga Khan Education Service companies in the 1970s, the schools have been administered and managed centrally. The school started with 25 students and 7 teaching staff, occupying classes IX to XII.[4]

In August of 1990, the present senior section opened in Uttara. The junior and primary sections were opened in 1999 and 2000 respectively.

The school was authorized as an International Baccalaureate World School in April 2009.

In 2009, the longest serving Head of Education, George G. Kays, retired, serving the school from July 1998 to June 2009.[4] Jacqueline Parai served as the Head of the School from 2009 to 2011.[4]

Fardin Rahman is the current Head of Education.[5]

Description

As of 2013, the school consists of a student body of 1,222 and a faculty of 118 teachers.[1] The school offers education from preschool to higher secondary levels (playgroup, nursery, kindergarten I and II and grades 1 to 12), following the British national curriculum, designed to prepare students for IGCSE and GCE Advanced Level examinations.

Syed Abdulnur is serving as Head of Secondary School, while Shatila Reza is serving as Head of Middle School.[5] The chairman of the board is Mr. Suleiman Ajanee. The school organizes annual events, functions and concerts. Annually, the Ordinary and Advanced Level examinees of Aga Khan School perform impressively in the exams, as evidenced by their presence at The Daily Star Awards for schools following the Cambridge International Examinations.

International Baccalaureate certification

The school has been an IB World School since April 2009. It offers the IB Primary Years Program in English. Additionally, the school is moving to the complete IB Curriculum, which will be conducted at new premises at Bashundhara, Dhaka. The institute offering the IB program will be named The Aga Khan Academy.

The proposed Aga Khan Academy has been in the planning stages for several years, and the Aga Khan Education Service, Bangladesh (AKES,B) have obtained pre-authorization from the International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO) to implement the IB Primary Years Programme (IB-PYP) in pre-school (Play Group and Nursery), Kindergarten and Grades 1 to 5.

His Highness Prince Karim Aga Khan IV, on his visit to Bangladesh, laid the foundation stone for the Aga Khan Academy in Basundhara, Dhaka. This will be a full-fledged IBO authorized school offering the Primary Years Program (PYP), the Middle Years Program (MYP) for Grades 6 to 10, and the Diploma Program (IB-DP) for students in Grades 11 and 12. However, little construction has been completed.

The academy will have International Academic Partnership (IAP) agreements with Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, United States and Schule Schloss Salem in Salem, Baden-Württemberg, Germany.

List of Heads of education

TenureNationalityName
1988–1991Mohiuddin Babar (acting)
1991–1994Zul Khuja
1994–1997Kenneth McCaffery
1997–2009George Gaddon Kays
2010–2011Jacqueline Parai
2011–2014Nicola Sum
2015 —2017Fatima J. Husein
2017 – November 2018Craig Salmon
2019–2021Dr. Dale Taylor
  1. Web site: Aga Khan Education Services. Aga Khan Development Network. 30 May 2014. https://web.archive.org/web/20120112231939/http://www.akdn.org/akes_programmes.asp. 12 January 2012. dead.
  2. https://maps.google.com/maps/place?cid=7139583528635057783&q=The+Aga+Khan+School,+Dhaka,+Bangladesh&hl=en&authuser=0&cd=1&cad=src:ppiwlink&ei=UKIrT_zOAerPmAX The Aga Khan School – About – Google
  3. Web site: Welcome to the Aga Khan School, Dhaka. Aga Khan Schools. 28 April 2011. 12 May 2011. https://web.archive.org/web/20110512090343/http://www.agakhanschools.org/bangladesh/aksd/default.asp. dead.
  4. Web site: Education Services. 28 April 2011. https://web.archive.org/web/20110429131144/http://www.agakhanschools.org/bangladesh/aksd/about_akes.asp. 29 April 2011. dead. dmy-all.
  5. Web site: School Leadership Team. Aga Khan Schools. 30 May 2014. https://web.archive.org/web/20140612055317/http://www.agakhanschools.org/bangladesh/aksd/staff_team.asp. 12 June 2014. dead. dmy-all.

School Leadership Team

As of Oct 2017, the School Leadership Team consists of:

Primary SchoolSecondary School
PrincipalTJ Coburn
HeadsShatila RezaFahmida Chowdhury
CoordinatorsLatifa Rahman
Tanjina Hossain
Syeda Mobasshera Sultana
Fouzia Akhter Khan
Md. Mahmudul Hasan
Shemoul Hamid
Shamima Shahnaz
Usha Kasana
Operations ManagerMd. Mahmudul Hasan
IT ManagerFaruk Sikder (Acting)
Finance OfficerKarim Nathu
  1. Web site: Aga Khan Education Services. Aga Khan Development Network. 30 May 2014. https://web.archive.org/web/20120112231939/http://www.akdn.org/akes_programmes.asp. 12 January 2012. dead.
  2. https://maps.google.com/maps/place?cid=7139583528635057783&q=The+Aga+Khan+School,+Dhaka,+Bangladesh&hl=en&authuser=0&cd=1&cad=src:ppiwlink&ei=UKIrT_zOAerPmAX The Aga Khan School – About – Google
  3. Web site: Welcome to the Aga Khan School, Dhaka. Aga Khan Schools. 28 April 2011. 12 May 2011. https://web.archive.org/web/20110512090343/http://www.agakhanschools.org/bangladesh/aksd/default.asp. dead.
  4. Web site: Education Services. 28 April 2011. https://web.archive.org/web/20110429131144/http://www.agakhanschools.org/bangladesh/aksd/about_akes.asp. 29 April 2011. dead. dmy-all.
  5. Web site: School Leadership Team. Aga Khan Schools. 30 May 2014. https://web.archive.org/web/20140612055317/http://www.agakhanschools.org/bangladesh/aksd/staff_team.asp. 12 June 2014. dead. dmy-all.

See also

External links