Error message

The page you requested does not exist. For your convenience, a search was performed using the query general aga khan academies E2 80 99 student exchange programme comes maputo.

About the Academy

The Aga Khan Academy Maputo is the third in a network of Aga Khan Academies established by His Highness the Aga Khan. It follows the highly successful model established by the first two Academies, which opened in Mombasa, Kenya in 2003 and Hyderabad, India in 2011.

The Aga Khan Academy Maputo has been accredited as an International Baccalaureate (IB) World School for the Primary Years Programme, Middle Years Programme and Diploma Programme.

The Academy features state-of-the-art facilities, a multicultural student body, and an experienced team of educators and staff. We provide students with education of the highest standard in order to prepare them for lives characterised by leadership and service.

Admission to the Academy is means-blind and is based on merit. We consider all eligible students regardless of socio-economic status.

A culture of excellence

As with all the Aga Khan Academies, we are committed to excellence in all aspects of education. This commitment includes the academic curriculum as well as the campus where students live and learn.

Our campus is architect designed and is being purpose built. With state-of-the-art classrooms and resource areas, and extensive sports facilities, our campus will provide an inspiring environment for both students and staff.

At the Academy, we strive to create a balance between academic demands, sports, cultural activities and community life. We challenge our students to be intellectually inquisitive and socially conscious. We also encourage them to respect and appreciate other people’s cultures, social structures, values and beliefs.

A rigorous academic programme

The Aga Khan Academies' academic programme has been developed through the implementation of the widely-recognised International Baccalaureate. The programme is designed to challenge students of all backgrounds.

Our aims for our students include:

promoting academic excellence
enhancing analytical and study skills
building leadership skills
fostering an ethical outlook and sense of civic responsibility
developing an understanding of global issues
encouraging creativity.

Experienced local and international teachers lead our programmes. Faculty members are up-to-date with the best educational practices. They are committed both to their students’ learning and to their own continuing professional development.

Bernardo Arsénio: Inspired teacher with a mission

Bernardo learned from the Aga Khan Academies that knowledge cannot just be seen as something that starts and ends in a classroom, but that knowledge should also be applicable outside the classroom to solve real problems in real life.

Map 20171107 Bernardo Arsenio 4

Bernardo Arsénio’s journey to becoming a teacher started when he was in year 11 of his school in Maputo, Mozambique. He had a history teacher who used to make fun of him in the classroom. “He used to come to my desk and ask me what I was doing in his class,” Bernardo says. The teacher did that continuously throughout the year. This affected Bernardo’s performance and motivation to be in that class. He failed the class that year.

“But then I realised I could not let him win… I knew that I am supposed to be in class to learn and not to just let someone de-motivate me because he thinks I shouldn’t be there." Bernardo went to talk to his principal who allowed him to attend the class with the same teacher in spite of failing the class. Bernardo later realised that he had to change his attitude if his teacher did not change his. “So I started attending his class – I used to do all the assignments, tests and homework. I never missed even one class in the year,” he says. Bernardo’s constant efforts were noticed by the teacher – Bernardo even achieved the highest mark that year. In turn, the teacher’s attitude towards him changed for the better.

By giving an example from his life, Bernardo explains why a healthy relationship between a teacher and a student is so important. Having a teacher who does not care and does not motivate the students can have negative consequences. “It almost happened to me and I did not let it happen. I used the negative motivation to change it into a positive one – that inspired me to become a teacher,” he says vehemently.

Map 20171107 Bernardo Arsenio 3

Bernardo pursued History at Eduardo Mondlane University in Maputo. After graduating with a degree in History and a minor in Information Management in 2015, Bernardo began teaching history in a private school – Centro de Exames de Admissão. Desiring even more teaching skills, Bernardo took a six-month postgraduate course in 2016 at Universidade Pedagógica, specialising in teaching methodology.

After a rigorous selection process, Bernardo was one of six individuals who were given the opportunity for a year-long exchange at the Aga Khan Academy in Mombasa, Kenya as part of the Teacher Preparation Programme. “I was lucky to be in the group to come to Mombasa. That was when my journey started,” he says. At the Aga Khan Academy Mombasa, Bernardo went through three weeks of intensive English training. He humbly says, “We got support from each and every person in the Academy. To reach this level, for me to be able to communicate and to go to class and discuss a certain topic was all because we got so much help. I was challenged in class and felt I could not do it. When you feel you cannot do it, you think you are drowning but find yourself swimming and coming out of water; it was very meaningful.” Bernardo ended up teaching Humanities and History to students in Grades 6 to 9.

Map 20171107 Bernardo Arsenio 2

When he came to the Aga Khan Academy Mombasa, the first thing Bernardo noticed was how the students played an important role in their education and how they took the responsibility for their own education. He says, “Back at home, the environment is where the teacher owns the knowledge and dominates the classroom.” He also remembers going to a Theory of Knowledge class at the Academy and noticing how the students did not learn by rote but were encouraged to discuss and make sense of what was being taught. The method by which the class was taught thoroughly impressed him.

At the Aga Khan Academy Mombasa, Bernardo mentions how amazed he was to see such cultural and religious diversity. He took note of the unity with which everyone participated in school, for example by focusing on their similarities instead of their differences. He was also impressed with how sports classes were taught at the Academy, utilised as an opportunity for students to get together and learn about their similarities and differences. Bernardo found the people in Mombasa very warm and friendly and he did not feel far away from home.

Bernardo is now back in Mozambique, teaching at the Aga Khan Academy Maputo. He will continue to be a Humanities and History teacher and is helping support the growth of the Academy as they implement the International Baccalaureate (IB) Middle Years Programme. He strongly feels that a teacher should connect what is being taught to real life. For Bernardo, a teacher must motivate and support the students, and should enable students to develop and become better people.

Network teacher exchange programme launched

Aga Khan Academies students explore the Aga Khan Museum through virtual tour

Vision

The outlook and educational perspectives of the Aga Khan Academies are based on the vision of His Highness the Aga Khan. His vision looks to education of the highest quality that can prepare young people to lead and enact positive change in the world they inhabit.

The text below, drawn from the Foreword to Excellence in Education (Aga Khan Academies, 2003), outlines the vision of His Highness for the Aga Khan Academies.

A time of change

"We live in a time of rapid change — change that is often unpredictable and not always positive. My experience with development, as an observer and a practitioner, has led me to the conclusion that the best way to manage change, whether positive or negative, is to prepare for it and that there is no greater form of preparation for change than investments in education. These investments must focus, of course, on teachers of the highest quality — teachers who are creative and committed to their own life-long learning and self-improvement. It also means investments in facilities that provide an environment conducive to the less tangible but equally important elements of an education — self-esteem, leadership, tolerance, ethical judgment and moral reasoning."

What does it mean to be educated?

“However, as educators and parents have begun to make these investments, they are revisiting the age-old question: What does it mean to be an educated person? Many have come to realise that education must prepare students not only for the job market, but also for life.

From Zanzibar's madrassas to Britain's public schools, from American university preparatory academies to government schools in Pakistan, there is a realisation that education must equip students with more than a narrowly focused curriculum based on reading, writing and mathematics. It must expose students to a broad and meaningful study of the humanities, including science, music and art. The teaching of history and world civilisations must be more broadly representative of the world's entire heritage than it has in the past. This is especially true in regard to Islamic civilisations, which have been misrepresented or ignored despite their vital contributions in a wide range of spheres, from science to architecture.

Education must include mastery of more than one language and an ability to communicate effectively in those languages. In the face of the most rapid advances in technology in history, education also must teach students how to master information technologies. These skills now form a critical part of the learning process, as well as essential qualifications for application in the workplace, but even these elements are not enough."

Preparing children for life

“An education must equip students with the tools that enable them to adapt and thrive, in a world characterised by change. In such an environment, technical proficiency is not enough. Education that prepares children for life must go beyond fundamental skills to stimulate creativity, intellectual curiosity and honest inquiry. Advancement and development, both personal and societal, are dependant on these elements. Innovation and progress arise from the ability to approach a challenge in a new way and offer a solution."

A pluralistic outlook

“Education must also make the case for a pluralistic tradition in which other views, ethnicities, religions and perspectives are valued not only because that is just and good, but also because pluralism is the climate best suited for creativity, curiosity and inquiry to thrive. It must also stimulate students to consider a variety of perspectives on some of the fundamental questions posed by the human condition: 'What is truth?' 'What is reality?' and 'What are my duties to my fellow man, to my country and to God?' At the same time, education must reinforce the foundations of identity in such a way as to reinvigorate and strengthen them so that they can withstand the shock of change."

The most important measure of an education

“What students know is therefore no longer the most important measure of an education. The true test is the ability of students and graduates to engage with what they do not know and to work out a solution. They must also be able to reach conclusions that constitute the basis for informed judgements. The ability to make judgements that are grounded in solid information and employ careful analysis, should be one of the most important goals for any educational endeavour. As students develop this capability, they can begin to grapple with the most important and difficult step: to learn to place such judgements in an ethical framework.

“For all these reasons, there is no better investment that individuals, parents and the nation can make than an investment in education of the highest possible quality. Such investments are reflected and endure, in the formation of the kind of social conscience that our world so desperately needs."