The Future of the Aga Khan University: Evolution of a Vision

	C.2	*The Future ofIED and Education inAKU*

	2.7	A certain immiscibility of teacher training and a university's commitment to research was one of the assumptions on which IED doctrine was based. Harry Judge in his survey observed that "the imperatives of research are not those of teaching or teacher preparation" and this was an important reason he found the relationship between schools of education and universities an uncomfortable one. [op. cit. p. 5 1 ] The proposal for IED in fact dwelt at some length on the research that should accompany its work but there was no initial funding to support it. The Commission in its first consideration of IED noted this gap with concern. Some attention to research is now assured under (Canadian) IDRC funding, but the demands of expanding operations will make it difficult to keep a strong place for research and intellectual objectives in the work of IED. We do appreciate that there is force in the view that devotion to teacher training and to research are not easily mixed. IED was established not simply to understand how young people were developing and what was happening in the schools of Pakistan; it was intended to improve these schools and the teaching within them. It is quite properly devoting itself to these meliorative objectives. In the possible future of an expanded IED which we sketched out above, it would remain focused on improving the quality of education in various ways. Research to assess the sources of successes and failures, and to point the way toward new experiments is a natural and necessary accompaniment of such programmes. Indeed, we have said above that research of this sort will be imperative, both to sound development of IED and to the wider influence it may have on educational practice and policy. But we are reluctant to accept that AKU's role in study and research on education should be confined to these applied forms; we would like to see it contribute to a deeper understanding of the meanings and importance of education and human development in the areas of the world which are its special concern.

	2.8	In its consideration of missions for AKU in this area the Commission has given particular attention to the broad subject of human development. As we shall explain at some length, [in Section VII c.4 below] this is a subject broader than formal education, embracing biological maturation, physical, environmental and cultural influences, including of course those of formal education. The growing perception that the development and prosperity of societies depends on their human resources makes all countries anxious to promote the quality of their own people. Education is an important source of human development but only one source, and we anticipate that there will be growing perception of the need to understand in broader ways how capable human beings are fostered. In the developing world, the incidence of adverse conditions is particularly likely, and in this field as in others, there is a great disparity between the research devoted to the rich and to the poor countries. The engagement of AKU in both education and the health sciences gives it resources to approach this subject in the comprehensive way that is needed, in settings where research has been too scattered, or quite lacking.

	2.9	The Commission is proposing [in Section VII c.4 below] the establishment of an AKU Institute of Human Development which would engage in research and graduate study in this field and it has envisaged the possibility that IED might evolve into such an Institute. We have, however, come to the views expressed in the paragraphs above, viz., that AKU should continue activities in the field of education that are not primarily in research. We are persuaded that the strong international support IED has attracted would not have been available for a start as a research institute and we think AKU will continue to find stronger support for an educational programme that has diverse functions. AKU will not be as significant in showing the way to better education for the developing and Muslim worlds if it does not combine its innovations and demonstrations with research of high quality. Some of this research effort should be an integral part of IED (or whatever it may grow into) but we anticipate that much can be supplied through the Institute of Human Development we are proposing. We conceive that that Institute will be separate from IED, and perhaps closer to the Faculty of Health Sciences; but clearly it must have close relations to IED and for some purposes serve as its research arm ' It is conceivable, for example, that as IED spreads into several locations as suggested above, one or more of its branches might be accompanied by branches of the Institute of Human Development.

	2.10	A particular hope and concern of the Commission deserves special mention. It is that AKU will provide illumination and example toward the strengthening of education in Muslim countries. We urge that this concern be high on the agenda of the future IED. But what IED does must be supported by other parts of the university, and notably by those devoted to Islamic culture and civilisations, and to human development.

	2.11	The location of AKU's future activities in education and human development must take into account the need for international dispersion to achieve broad relevance. It must also be influenced by the distribution of Aga Khan schools and educational facilities. The large concentration of these latter in Pakistan has been sufficient cause and stimulus for the starting of IED in Pakistan - The case for continuing to centre AKU's educational component, whether a Faculty or an expanded IED, in Pakistan is clearly very strong, perhaps even compelling. But the present concentration of all AKU's activities in Pakistan and the Commission's view that expansions in the health sciences and biomedical research should probably occur in proximity to AKUMC lead us to ask how education and human development might be located elsewhere. The spread of AKES schools in East Africa and India directs attention to these places. The needs of Tajikistan also beckon. The expectation that IED may successfully multiply its Professional Development Centres means that it may have one or more of them in East Africa before very long. India appears less likely for political reasons and there are several reasons, linguistic and otherwise, why a PDC in Tajikistan is unlikely soon. The difficulty and interest of educational problems in East Africa need little elaboration. They strengthen the case for a shift in the balance of AKU's educational interest towardsI East Africa. We feel strongly that AKU should, in education as in other fields, keep its sights on generic problems that are shared by many nations. It should be at least as international in its educational work as the network of Aga Khan schools is. Granting that the case for maintaining the centre of gravity of AKU's educational programmes in Pakistan may be compelling, we urge that a secondary locus be developed in East Africa; it will be surrounded by a rich array of needs and problems and may assure better linkages to India, and perhaps other places, than will be possible from Pakistan.

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