The Academies Network
The Aga Khan Academy Maputo is the third in a planned network of Aga Khan Academies being established in countries across Africa, South and Central Asia, Europe and the Middle East.
The aim of the Academies is to develop future leaders with the skills and knowledge to support positive development in their societies. We achieve this by recruiting exceptional young people from all backgrounds and providing them with the highest international standard of education.
Admission is means-blind and based on merit to ensure access for eligible students regardless of financial circumstances.
"...the Academies will be serious, focused, rigorous environments – but at the same time they will be spacious and joyous places. They will operate on the cutting edge of knowledge and pedagogy, but they will be rooted in history and steeped in tradition."
When complete, the network of Academies will form a global learning community of approximately 18 schools in 14 countries (map).
They will eventually serve approximately 14,000 girls and boys of exceptional calibre, graduating 1,500 students annually.
For more information, visit our Academies network home page.
Aleem Mawji (Class of 2012): The most powerful weapon
A Hand Up at the Aga Khan Academy
I was born in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, where I went through Aga Khan Nursery, Primary and Secondary schools. When I was approaching my last two years of secondary education, I started considering a move away from home to prepare for life in university, and the Aga Khan Academy Mombasa came to mind. I had visited the campus in seventh grade for a soccer tournament, and was left amazed by the beauty of the facility.
To be perfectly frank, my family’s financial circumstances would have made it very difficult to attend the Academy; some form of financial assistance was crucial. I was thrilled when AKA saw past the financial difficulty, recognized my accomplishments and potential to excel, and accepted me with a scholarship. I gratefully accepted the scholarship, knowing I had a responsibility to make full use of this immense opportunity. So at age 16 I set out for Mombasa and started with the International Baccalaureate (IB) program!
Learning a New Mode of Thinking; Meeting a New Community
Every day at AKA was challenging, as anyone that has experience with the IB program can certainly attest! Even mathematics presented a new language; I remember having to read a paper on mathematics with the date of publication and page numbers being the only numbers in the entire document! However, my most valuable academic experience was studying the Theory of Knowledge. This course focused very strongly on making one critically examine what it is that we “know.” To this day it has me questioning a lot of premises I would otherwise accept.
While the academic environment was fairly rigorous, it only enforced the already-strong sense of community one would experience in the residential program. One moment, we were scratching our heads over a physics lab report due that evening, and the next, we were plotting ways to sneak into the AstroTurf to kick the soccer ball around! In my opinion, this type of learning environment truly makes the Academy a unique and fulfilling experience. To this day, I still regard many of my dorm-mates as extended family rather than school colleagues.
Path to British Columbia
At the end of my two-year stay in Mombasa, I was honored to receive the Academy’s Medal of Honor for highest academic standing, and Award of Excellence; an all-round award for academics, sports, extracurricular, leadership, and volunteering. I was also nominated by the Academy for the International Leader of Tomorrow Award from the University of British Columbia (UBC). I received this award in the form of a full scholarship to study the program of my choice at UBC’s campus in Vancouver, Canada. While I left the compound of the Academy with immense joy knowing I had fulfilled some expectations placed on me, I felt an even greater sense of responsibility to myself, my family and the Academy given my opportunity to study in British Columbia.
The program I decided to study was Mechanical Engineering. Coming from a family of engineers certainly played a role in this decision, but I most appreciated the versatility of the degree and how the applications of mechanical engineering design spanned a range of industries. Over the course of my degree, I have worked on projects ranging from micro-controller-based autonomous vehicles, to a drip-irrigation system for optimizing use of a limited water supply. I have also spent eight months in the maintenance engineering department of a large copper mine, and have worked on the design of a device to prevent excessive bleeding from an injured limb.
I attribute my desire to work on this wide range of projects to two things: an unwillingness to be satisfied with the knowledge the I possess at any time, and a desire to have a larger positive impact on as many fronts as I can, when I have the capacity to do so. While these are arguably generic traits, my belief in them has been strongly enforced by the people I met at the Academy, and the Aga Khan Academy Learner’s Profile that the institution so strongly stands for and promotes in its students.
Working Together
During my third-year in university, I found myself at a cross-roads. While I enjoyed the versatility of the engineering degree, a part of me knew that becoming a professional engineer may not have been best-suited to my aspirations.
When I was in London visiting my cousin in the summer of 2015, he introduced me to the world of management consulting. Initially, it brought to mind an image of a team in suits, working in isolation, preparing a PowerPoint deck instructing a company on changes to be made to achieve X. I later discovered how out-of-date this impression is. Management consulting, I have found, is all about solving complicated problems that have a large impact on the clients and the community around them. More often than not, this is achieved while working hand-in-hand with the client companies to implement a proposed solution.
I learned more about this industry during a recent internship with McKinsey & Company. During this time, I got to work with a large coal mine that was seeking to reduce its maintenance costs. What was truly unique about this experience was how we were in the field, working with the tradesmen, foremen and managers, asking ourselves questions like “How do we know when best to replace this $300,000 piece of equipment? What actionable change can we make to our maintenance practice? How can we track the effect of this change?” We would draw on the strengths of each other’s backgrounds and figure out practical solutions together! I really appreciate this idea. I don’t want my work to be just theoretical or conceptual. I want to be on the front line, working with the people in question to make these changes tangible.
Harnessing Potential
One project that grew during my undergraduate study was a company that my brother, Naeem, and I co-founded. The company’s goal (to increase the access to electricity for people in Tanzania) was strongly based on values my family instilled, and that were prevalent at my time at the Academy. First, it applied the idea of giving back when one has the capacity to do so – not because we have to, but because we can. Second, it focused on the notion of sustainability and building capacity; not a one-time handout, but an activity that helps people harness their own potential to thrive.
In some ways, I see parallels in the role that the Aga Khan Academy has played in my story. As I approach the end of my undergraduate studies and begin my transition into a professional career, I reflect on the events that have taken place, and the individuals that have played a role to get me to the position I am in. While I owe an unparalleled amount of credit to my parents and two siblings for instilling the right foundation, I cannot overestimate the role the Academy played in my development. I came into the Academy with a scholarship, viewed as a student with potential, and have since become an individual with a stronger belief in my ability to harness my own potential, and that of people around me. That, I believe, is the most powerful weapon.
This spotlight is republished courtesy of AKF USA.
Middle Years Programme
The Aga Khan Academy Maputo is a Candidate School* for the Diploma Programme. The Academy is pursuing authorisation as an IB continuum school. These are schools that share a common philosophy — a commitment to high quality, challenging, international education that the believes is important for our students.
What is the MYP?
The MYP is a challenging and exciting inquiry-based curriculum that actively engages students in their learning by encouraging them to make connections between what they study and the wider world. The five-year programme offers students access to a curriculum that is broad and balanced, conceptual and connected. What matters is not absorbing facts that can be repeated but developing ways of thinking that can be applied to new situations.
There are 8 subject groups within the MYP. Here at the Aga Khan Academy in Maputo our students study Portuguese and English language and literature, Portuguese, English and, in MYP3, French language acquisition, humanities, sciences, mathematics, visual arts, design and physical and health education.
In addition to the academic subjects our MYP students also develop leadership skills, library research skills and initiate and participate in service with the community.
In the final year of the programme students complete a personal project that encourages them to strengthen their approaches to learning skills, consolidate prior and subject-specific learning and develop an area of personal interest. In the context of the Aga Khan mission, vision and values it also develops awareness of a community need and seeks to address it in a meaningful way. The personal project is challenging, motivational and interesting as each student develops a personal project independently.
MYP Learners
The MYP promotes open communication, based on mutual understanding and respect. It encourages students to become active, compassionate lifelong learners. The programme is holistic and as such is concerned with developing the whole person. Along with cognitive development, the programme addresses students’ social, emotional and physical well-being. Students are encouraged to become active and caring members of local, national and international communities who respect themselves, others and the world around them. They develop effective communication skills, social skills, self-management skills, research skills and thinking skills that will enable them to adapt to a range of contexts, as they make their way through life.
Assessment for learning
Teachers use a variety of assessment strategies to address the MYP subject-group objectives. The assessment for learning tasks include, among other things compositions, creating solutions or products in response to problems, essays, examinations, investigations, questionnaires, research tasks, performances, presentations, research task and reports.
In the fifth and final year of the MYP, to be eligible for the internationally recognized MYP certificate students must successfully complete eight eAssessments:
On-screen examinations in:
- Language and literature
- Individuals and societies (Humanities)
- Sciences
- Mathematics
- Interdisciplinary learning
ePortfolios (coursework) in:
- language acquisition
- physical and health education, arts or design
- the personal project
Students must also meet the school’s expectations for service and action.
The MYP bilingual certificate additionally requires successful results from on-screen examinations of:
A second language and literature instead of a course in language acquisition
The maximum total score for the IB MYP certificate is 56, with a grade from 1-7 assigned to each required eAssessment.
Students must achieve a total of at least 28 points, with a grade of ‘3’ or higher n each eAssessment component, to be eligible to receive the MYP certificate.
Transition to the IB Diploma (DP)
MYP subject groups form an important common foundation for all students and provide strong alignment with the six subject groups in the DP which follows. The two year DP course encourages depth and breadth of learning and builds on students’ prior learning experiences. This encourages them to become confident, independent learners. It also encourages students to develop their critical thinking skills, self-management and global mindedness. Further, research carried out on behalf of the IB demonstrates that successful DP graduates are much more likely to be enrolled at top higher education institutions than entrants holding other qualifications.
Please visit the Admission Requirements page or contact us to find out more about applying to the MYP programme at the Academy.
*Only schools authorised by the IB Organization can offer any of its four academic programmes: the Primary Years Programme (PYP), the Middle Years Programme (MYP), the Diploma Programme, or the Career-related Programme (CP). Candidate status gives no guarantee that authorisation will be granted. For further information about the IB and its programmes, visit http://www.ibo.org.
International Baccalaureate - Diploma Programme
International Baccalaureate - Diploma Programme
Kashyap Gohel (Class of 2011): Providing solutions to improve the world
Kashyap Gohel has been pursuing a Bachelor of Architecture programme at the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) in Nairobi, Kenya since graduating from the Aga Khan Academy Mombasa in 2011. "My top marks at the Aga Khan Academy earned me a government scholarship which is about 85% of the annual fees for my architecture course of six years," says Kashyap very proudly. He expects to graduate from JKUAT in June 2017.
"I think the main values the Academy instilled in me were positive attitude, time management, assertiveness, competitive spirit and self-confidence. These are values that I apply on a day-to-day basis to form the foundation of a successful career in art, product design and architecture," Kashyap says confidently. He also adds that the confidence that his skill set gives him takes him further than most in trying challenging and new projects in his field. With this experience in mind he says, "I am sure I shall be quite a pioneer in creating world-changing ideas."
Kashyap believes the coursework at his university and his time management are going smoothly due to the intense training at the Aga Khan Academy. "Coming from the Academy, I believe it set me a level ahead of others, enabling me to go further than my fellow students." He also values the International Baccalaureate curriculum. "It is the only system that I know of that makes it possible for one to develop holistically. One does not just learn academics, but also extracurricular activities, leadership skills, developing talents and solving community problems," he says emphatically.
Since graduating from the Aga Khan Academy, Kashyap has participated in many major events and activities that have brought him recognition and accolades. He was a winner of the Perstorp Open Innovation Challenge 2016 in Sweden which involved submitting ideas on making, repairing and remolding furniture into new shapes and designs rather than disposing of used or broken pieces in landfills. Kashyap has also won the Disruption by Design Award for architectural design in 2015. Other accomplishments include being awarded a tender to create a 14-foot-tall carving at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi, Kenya in 2014 and winning the first round of the Thought for Food Challenge 2013 – an annual competition that challenges university students to develop an innovative solution to improve food security. He also won an international graphic design contest for an Irish boat-making company and has displayed his artwork at Diani Beach Art gallery, Tazama Art Gallery and Kenya Art Fair.
Kashyap was also nominated and sponsored to attend the One Young World conferences in Pittsburgh, USA in 2012, and in Johannesburg, South Africa in 2013. These summits gather the brightest young leaders from around the world, empowering them to make lasting connections and develop solutions to some of the world's most pressing issues.
Kashyap is particularly proud of his first community service project, called Project Desert Farms. He designed this as an architectural solution to help communities on the coast to filter ocean water, obtain housing and food, and reduce deforestation. This project was selected as a finalist project from a worldwide participation of 140 teams, and the only one in Africa that made it to the Thought for Food Global Summit in Berlin, Germany.
While at the Aga Khan Academy Mombasa and after graduating in 2011, Kashyap has been actively involved in many projects and volunteer activities and has also worked for the Academy and other companies in his field. In 2011 he worked with planning and construction management at the Aga Khan Academy. He also volunteered there as a theatre teacher for years 7–10 in 2012 and was involved in the design of two of the Academy’s residential blocks.
Kashyap's most unforgettable experience at the Academy was being a dorm captain in the residential programme. "One of the things I miss about the Academy is the organisation…[and the] efficient order in the way it operates," he comments. Another thing he misses about the Academy is the facilities. "It’s only after leaving the Academy that you appreciate the constant high speed Wi-Fi, adequate number of desks and chairs for students, high-class sports facilities and equipment, and most of all the great ocean climate and friendly people. As they say, nothing beats home," Kashyap reminisces nostalgically.
Introduction to the Aga Khan Academies
In 2000, His Highness the Aga Khan initiated the establishment of the Aga Khan Academies, an integrated network of schools to be located in countries across Africa, South and Central Asia, and the Middle East.
The aim of the Academies is to develop future leaders with the skills and knowledge to support positive development in their societies. The Academies achieve this by recruiting exceptional young people from all backgrounds and providing them with the highest international standard of education.
Admission is based upon merit, with financial aid available to ensure access for accepted students regardless of financial circumstances.
Global network
The first Aga Khan Academy opened in Mombasa, Kenya in 2003, the second in Hyderabad, India in 2011, the third in Maputo, Mozambique in 2013 and the fourth in Dhaka, Bangladesh in 2022.
Rigorous academic programme
The academic programme offered by the Academies has been developed according to the principles of the widely-recognised International Baccalaureate (IB). The IB provides a challenging academic environment for students and allows their achievement to be measured against international standards.
In addition to providing a rigorous academic and leadership experience, the Academies help students develop an ethical and public-minded outlook through community service opportunities and education on ethics and pluralism.
“An education must equip students with the tools that enable them to adapt and thrive in a world characterised by change.”They also recognise that to become effective leaders, students must be both globally minded and locally rooted. Global as well as local perpectives are reflected in the curriculum, and students study in both English and the local language.
Purpose-built residential campuses
Each Aga Khan Academy campus is architect designed and purpose built. They feature state-of-the-art classrooms and resource areas, and extensive sports facilities.
The residences provide secure and well-supervised accommodation for local and international students as well as those visiting from another Academy. As the network develops further, both students and teachers will participate in visits and exchanges between Academies to broaden their experience and practical understanding of pluralism.
Professional development
Promoting excellence in teaching, both on campus and more broadly, is a major goal of the Academies. Each Academy is established as a Professional Development Centre (PDC). The PDC aims at strengthening the profession of teaching in the region by providing substantial professional learning opportunities and modelling highly effective educational practice.
Student Exchange 2019: Student Reflections on Week Two
Student Exchange 2019: Student Reflections on Week Three
Student organises fashion show for albinism students
Student Exchange 2019: Student Reflections on Week Seven
