Chapter 19: Trials in the Humanities

The Aga Khan is the 49th hereditary Imam of the Ismaili Muslims. For more than a hundred years, the Aga Khan family has been promoting education at all levels, most recently in Central Asia. The Aga Khan Humanities Project develops curriculum material and trains teachers for universities and schools in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. Headquartered in Dushanbe, the project collaborates with nine universities and a widening range of’ urban and rural schools. It encourages Central Asian scholars and teachers to develop thematic curriculum material in the humanities and test them in the universities, and at the school level, encourages child-centered teacher development and curriculum enrichment. Since 1998, the AKHP has produced more than 1,200 pages of material from different civilizations, provided intensive training to almost 50 university teachers, and forms a regular part of the courses in all six partner universities in Tajikistan. This chapter overviews the aims, issues and outcomes of the AKHP project in Tajikistan between 1997 and 2002.