HYDERABAD: Public education was still an essential obligation of a just society and its interests would be best served only if future leaders were prepared for an unusually demanding future, said Aga Khan, 49th Imam of the Shia Ismaili Muslims and founder chairman of Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN).

He was speaking after Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy laid the foundation for the Aga Khan Academy (AKA), an educational institution coming up on a 100-acre campus in Raviryal village in Maheshwaram mandal of adjoining Ranga Reddy district. This will be the second such academy after Mombasa in Kenya.

Based on the International Baccalaureate (IB) system, the academic programme would prepare students for the widely-respected IB degree and admission to the best of university programs in India and abroad. It would help them join a community of some 1,800 schools globally.

However, Aga Khan said the AKAs would have their own areas of emphasis, including an explicit concern for the value of pluralism and focus on ethics of life, of how global economics work and on comparative political systems. He said the tension and violence in much of the world was not out of fundamental clash of civilisations, especially between the Islamic world and the West, but only due to a clash of ignorance.

Dr. Reddy promised all help from Government to AKA in its endeavour and praised the AKDN for its social work, referring specifically to its post-tsunami intervention. He said in order to increase competitiveness, the Government had introduced Jawahar Knowledge Centres in 60 engineering and 30 degree colleges, apart from the `gurukulams' started in six districts for advanced training in knowledge areas. AKA Director Salim Bhatia, outlining milestones of the Academy's development, said professional development of teachers would begin by late 2008.

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