W W W .A G A K H A N S C H O O L S . O R G
INQ’RA AGA KHAN EDUCATION SERVICE, INDIA inq’ra: An AKESI Publication
Foreword
31st December 2021
Farhad Merchant, CEO, Aga Khan Education Service, India (AKESI) As we come to an end of 2021 and enter 2022, we have a lot to be grateful for. The year has brought with it many trials and tribulations, but it also gave us ample opportunities to learn and grow. Each day brought us closer as a family! Our vaccination drive resulted in 100% vaccination, for all our eligible staff, due to the enthusiasm with which all of us took it upon ourselves to make it happen. While COVID remained uppermost in our minds, and caused anxiety to everyone, we saw that the safety protocols and precautions that were put in place, helped keep the number of cases down to a minimum. This is certainly, something that each of us can be grateful for. However, there have been many others during this time that have succumbed to this virus and I pray for their souls to rest in eternal peace. This was a year of many firsts, and our motivated team, supported by the students and parents, came up with many innovative initiatives. We launched a blended learning e-School for Preschool programme, aimed at addressing the challenges of remote learning for our young learners, by bringing together online facilitation and a guided home programme, with a comprehensively designed learning resource pack. We also developed a bridge programme for our students, to address literacy gaps for students entering primary school. We released 250 audio books to help students of primary and secondary with language and pronunciations. These were made accessible on-demand for parents and teachers. We also curated and released content for all our schools, to ensure adherence to quality standards. We launched many national level competitions for our students, such as MathQuest, Monologues, and Story-telling. Our first ever Aga Khan Schools Model United Nations was an amazing experience for the students and staff of all our schools.
INSIDE THIS ISSUE AKS - Model United Nations………...………….2 When Grammar Came Out to Play!.....…..…..2 Storytelling & Monologue Competition..….…2 Academic Interventions ……………………….....2 Teacher Quotient Test for Math Teachers…..2 Storytelling and Science - What a concept!...3 AKHH impact on students lives…………...…3
In alignment with the new National Education Policy, we continued to develop a holistic curriculum that emphasizes upon conceptual understanding, is inter-disciplinary, integrates the fine arts and creates multiple opportunities for critical thinking and creativity.
Parent Orientation..……......…..………………….3
Health and wellbeing of our staff remained uppermost on our minds, and we conducted various initiatives to address these. Staff engagement levels remained high throughout the year, with each member in the team, stepping up to do all that was possible to ensure learning continuity for our students. The staff also had fun along the way, through a number of enjoyable and engaging professional development initiatives, such as Spell-bee, Book Circle, and Fun’n’learn sessions for teachers.
Mock Parliament……......…………...………..……3
Get Up, Get Fit, Get Moving………..……………3 Revolution through street plays……....……….3 WATCH WHAT YOU EAT!.………………………3 Child Safety Week…..………....……………………4 35 fabulous years at AKP…..………..……………4 National/ International Days……………………4
Awards and Accolades...………………..…………5
During the year, maintenance and upgrades were carried out at our facilities, while the physical schooling was on hold. As the schools started to reopen physically, safety protocols were implemented, to ensure distancing, sanitization and masking. We are indeed blessed that many stories of our work were covered by various newspapers, publications and TV channels, with a combined reach of more than 30 million people. We were in the spotlight for our exemplary ECCE practices; invited to share the work we do with our staff to encourage Creativity and Collaboration in Education; and also wrote and reviewed children storybooks that were published by the government for children accessing Anganwadis across Gujarat. To top it all, AKESI schools received a whopping 90 awards (41 national, 9 state, and 40 regional), and also featured among India’s 10 Most Respected Education Brands (National Rank #5). Indeed, we have a lot to be grateful for! On behalf of the entire AKESI family, I take this opportunity to express my gratitude for these blessings, and for the solidarity and support that each of you have extended to us.
“The right to hope is the most powerful human motivation I know.”
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His Highness the Aga Khan
INQ’RA: Keeping with the spirit of pluralism, the name inq’ra is a blend of the English word “ink” (used to write) and the Arabic word “iqra” (the akesi symbol, which means: to read). inq’ra is also inspired from the word “inquiry”. If you flip this over, you can see akesi, indicating that this is a reflection of our work.
