The document summarizes the work of the Institute for Educational Development in East Africa (IED). IED works to improve education in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda by developing teachers, school leaders, and educational policymakers. It offers masters degrees and certificate programs for current educators. IED faculty also conduct research and provide direct training to teachers. The goal is to transform education systems and ensure all students receive a high-quality education. IED has had a significant positive impact but hopes to do more through a new campus that would allow expanded programs and innovation.

1. INSTITUTE FOR EDUCATIONAL DEVELOPMENT, EAST AFRICA

2. INSTITUTE FOR EDUCATIONAL DEVELOPMENT | 1
“EVERY TEACHER NEEDS THIS OPPORTUNITY.
I WISH ALL COULD COME TO IED AND SEE
HOW WE CAN CHANGE TOGETHER.”
Samillar Qadar, Class of 2014
Cover and this page: Students in Tanzania’s Morogoro Region, where to date the Institute for Educational Development
has helped 378 working teachers and school leaders with courses in subjects such as Educational Leadership and
Management and Early Years’ Literacy.

3. 2 | THE AGA KHAN UNIVERSITY INSTITUTE FOR EDUCATIONAL DEVELOPMENT | 3
LEADERSTraining for leadership
maximizes our impact.
One of the 1,600 working educators in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda who have
taken a Certificate in Education course at IED.
VISIT ANY PRIMARY
SCHOOL IN EAST AFRICA
AND YOU WILL SEE
THE CURIOSITY IN THE
CHILDREN’S EYES AND
FEEL THE EAGERNESS
IN THEIR HEARTS.
A dozen hands shoot up when a
teacher asks a question, and the lucky
child called upon leaps to her feet to
give the answer. Watching them, we
remember what it felt like to tremble
with the excitement of learning.
Unfortunately, across the region,
schools fail to deliver the high quality
education promising young people
deserve. Too often, bright eyes
dim as early enthusiasm finds little
to sustain itself.
Aga Khan University’s Institute for
Educational Development in Dar es
Salaam, Tanzania, is helping to change
that, by focusing on raising the quality
of education for all students. Through
its master’s degree programme
and courses for working teachers
delivered on-site at rural schools,
IED is developing teachers, teacher
educators and educational leaders
who are agents of change, ready
to transform instruction and school
management and promote equal
access to schooling throughout
East Africa. Thus, our graduates
have an impact that goes far
beyond a single classroom.
For example, an Institute alumnus
working at a teacher-training college
trains scores of new teachers
every year, thereby impacting the
education of several thousand
students annually. Much the same
can be said of our graduates who
serve as school principals, quality
inspectors responsible for assessing
dozens of schools or regional
officials in charge of school systems
comprising 100,000 students or more.
Meanwhile, our faculty members
conduct a robust research programme
that is developing new insights into
some of the most important problems
in East African education.
Thus, IED takes an unusually
systematic approach, working actively
at the grassroots while promoting
change at the highest levels, building
a web of connections throughout
the region and developing theory in
tandem with practice.
GREAT
TEACHERS
INSPIRED
LEADERS

4. 4 | THE AGA KHAN UNIVERSITY INSTITUTE FOR EDUCATIONAL DEVELOPMENT | 5
SINCE ITS FOUNDING IN
2006, IED HAS IMPROVED
TEACHING AT SCHOOLS
ACROSS KENYA, UGANDA
AND TANZANIA, TO THE
BENEFIT OF HUNDREDS
OF THOUSANDS OF
YOUNG PEOPLE.
In doing so, it has built on the
success of AKU’S first Institute for
Educational Development – founded
in 1993 and based in Karachi,
Pakistan – which has been lauded
by independent evaluators as “a
unique, effective, sustainable and
dynamic approach to education
reform for developing countries.”
Among those whom IED-Pakistan
impressed were eminent Calgary
business leaders Jim Gray, Brian
Felesky, Chris Robb and Sherali
Saju. Dubbing themselves the
Awali group – Swahili for “origin”
or “beginning” – the quartet helped
establish a new IED in East Africa
by raising $5 million from more than
100 individuals. To this, the Canadian
International Development Agency
added another $5 million. Thus, in
2006, was IED-East Africa born.
As of mid-2013, IED has awarded
132 master’s degrees. To ensure
our master’s programme is
accessible to all, the cost of tuition
is borne almost entirely by AKU
and the government. Another 1,600
working teachers and administrators
have completed one or more of the
Institute’s part-time Certificate in
Education courses, each of which
focuses on a single subject, such
as Educational Leadership and
Management or Early Childhood
Education. IED also has expanded
its reach through intensive short
courses and partnerships with
governments, universities and
non-profit organizations. For
example, the Institute conducted
a two-week workshop for the heads
of all 34 public teacher training
colleges in Tanzania – an exceptional
opportunity to shape teaching at
the national level, and a sign of the
strong reputation the Institute has
built in a short time.
BUILDING
ON SUCCESS
QUALITYBECAUSE GREAT TEACHERS
PRODUCE GREAT STUDENTS.

5. 6 | THE AGA KHAN UNIVERSITY INSTITUTE FOR EDUCATIONAL DEVELOPMENT | 7
Our master’s students are as
diverse as East Africa itself. The
sons and daughters of subsistence
farmers, teachers, coffee growers
and cattle herders, they come
from places as different as the lush
highlands of Tanzania, the sparsely
populated desert of Kenya’s
northeast and Uganda’s isolated
West Nile region. What unites them
when they arrive at IED is their
passion for education. By the time
they leave, they will have something
else in common: the confidence
and the skills needed to transform
the systems in which they work.
In a region where rote learning
predominates, IED graduates
put students at the center of the
learning process, encouraging
questions and developing essential
problem-solving skills. In schools
where teachers are often isolated
from their colleagues, they break
down barriers that prevent the
spread of best practices and
the joint development of new
solutions. And they go out of their
way to connect with parents and
community members, knowing
their support is essential to building
strong schools.
ASK OUR GRADUATES
WHAT THEY LEARNED AT
IED AND THEY SAY: “HOW
TO BE A LEADER AND A
CRITICAL THINKER.” ASK
THEM TO DESCRIBE THEIR
EXPERIENCE AT THE
INSTITUTE IN ONE WORD
AND THEY ANSWER:
INSPIRATIONAL.”
DRIVING
CHANGE
Opposite page and page 4: A chemistry class taught by a graduate of IED’s
Master of Education programme.
PASSIONWE BELIEVE IT IS A
CONTAGIOUS FORCE
FOR CHANGE.
“

6. 8 | THE AGA KHAN UNIVERSITY INSTITUTE FOR EDUCATIONAL DEVELOPMENT | 9
“AKU HAS PREPARED US TO BE THE FACE OF
CHANGE IN OUR FAMILIES, IN OUR SCHOOLS
AND IN OUR LOCAL COMMUNITIES. I THINK MY
JOB DESCRIPTION CAN BE SUMMARIZED THUS:
INSPIRE FOR THE FUTURE.”
Benn Arunga, Class of 2011
A boy listens attentively to an IED-trained teacher. Under a major new grant from the Canadian government, IED expects
to provide continuing education courses for approximately 3,000 educators between 2013 and 2018, thereby impacting
education for hundreds of thousands of boys and girls.

7. 10 | THE AGA KHAN UNIVERSITY INSTITUTE FOR EDUCATIONAL DEVELOPMENT | 11
TOGETHERTO BUILD STRONG
SCHOOLS, WE WORK WITH
THE COMMUNITY.
OUR FACULTY MEMBERS
COULD TEACH ANYWHERE
IN THE WORLD. BUT THEY
CHOOSE TO MAKE A
DIFFERENCE IN EAST AFRICA.
Nor are their efforts limited to
teaching master’s degree courses
at IED in Dar es Salaam. Instead,
the whole of East Africa is their
classroom. To deliver the Institute’s
Certificate in Education courses for
working teachers, IED faculty go
where the need is greatest, traveling
to rural schools in hard-to-reach
areas where teachers have virtually
no opportunities to further their
education. Thus, they are intimately
acquainted with the challenges faced
by teachers, schools and students
across the region. When they offer
solutions, it is always with the local
context in mind.
Such on-the-ground work also
informs their research, which
concentrates on two areas of critical
importance. First, to ensure that
all children are equipped with the
basic skills needed for success,
IED investigates the acquisition of
literacy and of basic competence
in math, science and information
technology within the multi-lingual
context of East Africa, where
dozens of local languages are
spoken. And second, because girls
and other marginalized groups face
difficulties in gaining access to
schooling, IED focuses on inclusion
and equity in education.
IED alumnus and faculty member Shelina Walli of Tanzania leads a course for
primary school teachers in a rural classroom.
THE FACULTY
OF DISCOVERY

8. 12 | THE AGA KHAN UNIVERSITY INSTITUTE FOR EDUCATIONAL DEVELOPMENT | 13
IED’S PLANNED 10-ACRE
CAMPUS IN DAR ES
SALAAM WILL BE THE
INSTITUTE’S LAUNCH
PAD, ENABLING IT TO
REACH A NEW LEVEL
OF EXCELLENCE AND
INFLUENCE – PROVIDED
THE NECESSARY FUNDING
CAN BE SECURED.
Offering a dramatic contrast with
IED’s current quarters, a cramped
former boarding school, the campus
will allow students and faculty to
pioneer a new era of technological
A conceptual rendering of a portion of IED’s planned campus in Dar es Salaam.
(Image courtesy of HOK.)
innovation while encouraging the
face-to-face interactions and long-
term relationships that remain
critical elements of a transformative
educational experience. Fittingly for
an institution that integrates theory
and practice, the Institute will be
located next to a planned K-12 Aga
Khan Academy, whose proximity will
offer IED exceptional opportunities
for research, practice, training and
dialogue. Designed by renowned
architecture firm HOK, the campus
will exemplify the highest standards
of quality. One would expect nothing
less, given the international prestige
of the triennial Aga Khan Award
for Architecture.
READY TO
LAUNCH
A NEW ERA

9. 14 | THE AGA KHAN UNIVERSITY INSTITUTE FOR EDUCATIONAL DEVELOPMENT | 15
NOW IS THE TIME TO INVEST
IN IED: THE MOMENT
WHEN IT HAS PROVED ITS
POTENTIAL AND IS POISED
TO DO GREAT THINGS, THE
MOMENT WHEN EAST
AFRICA HAS MADE HUGE
STRIDES YET STILL FACES
TREMENDOUS CHALLENGES.
If the five nations of the East African
Community – Kenya, Tanzania,
Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi –
are to field the skilled men and
women needed to transform the
region, they must dramatically
improve the quality of education.
IED stands ready to lead the way
toward a future in which every boy
and girl in East Africa receives an
outstanding education. Whether by
supporting the construction of its
new campus, sponsoring students
or establishing an endowment that
secures its future for decades to
come, those who help to write the
next chapter in IED’s history will
make an enormous difference in the
lives of generations of individuals
and families. The institution they
make possible will stand as
enduring proof of the power of
education to transform developing
societies for the better.
NOW IS
THE TIME
Girls at a school supported by the Aga Khan Foundation in
Uganda, where IED will be increasingly active in the years ahead.
TRUSTWE KNOW one has TO
EARN IT EVERY DAY.

10. 16 | THE AGA KHAN UNIVERSITY
“YOU GO TO IED AND YOU’RE NEVER THE SAME
PERSON. YOU FEEL LIKE YOU HAVE TO MAKE
A DIFFERENCE. I THINK THAT IS THE PURPOSE
FOR THE WHOLE IED: TO CHANGE PEOPLE.
AND I THINK IT HAS REALLY CHANGED ME.”
Priscillar Mlingi, Class of 2012
Aga Khan University
Institute for Educational Development,
East Africa
PO Box 125, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
+255 22 215 0051 / 22 215 2293
iedea@aku.edu
www.aku.edu/iedea
North America Development Office
205 N. Michigan Ave., Suite 2211
Chicago, IL 60601 USA
+1 312 624 9241
resource.development@aku.edu
www.aku.edu
PHOTOGRAPHS BY PAUL HICKS
A girl in Tanzania’s Morogoro Region, where IED has partnered with San Francisco-
based Room to Read, which has built new classrooms and libraries to complement the
Institute’s extensive teacher-training efforts.