His Highness the Aga Khan and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Dr Y S Rajasekhar Reddy on Friday laid the foundation stone for the Aga Khan Academy, which would be dedicated to preparing talented young people for leadership roles in India and worldwide.

The academy is coming up in a 100-acre site donated by the Andhra Pradesh government at the Hardware Park layout in Rangareddy district.

The Aga Khan Development Network and its partners will invest $50 million in the construction and operation of the academy. The academy will enroll 750 students with a capacity to expand to 1,200 students. Professional development of teachers will begin, both for the academy teachers and for teachers from government and non-profit schools, locally and nationally in late 2008. Classes are scheduled to commence in 2009-2010.

Speaking on the occasion, the Aga Khan said, "Our celebration today is part of a long, unfolding story. It is, for me, a highly personal story -- growing out of my family's active involvement through the years in the field of education -- especially in the developing world."

"It was just about a century ago that my grandfather -- Sir Sultan Mohammed Shah Aga Khan -- began to build a network of educational institutions in places where the Ismaili community had settled. This network would eventually include some 300 schools -- 200 of which my grandfather opened personally," he said.

Recalling that his grandfather was the founding figure of Aligarh (Muslim) University, he said, "I have continued that tradition through the establishment of the Aga Khan University and the University of Central Asia."

"The tradition I am describing, however, goes back much further than 100 years. For it was some 1,000 years ago that my forefathers, the Fatimid Imam-Caliphs of Egypt, founded Al-Azhar University and the Academy of Knowledge in Cairo. For well over a millennium, the pursuit of knowledge has been a central element in our tradition. Against this background, this new educational beginning means so much to us," he added.

Referring to the Aga Khan Academy, he said, "Our goal, then, is not to provide special education for privileged elite -- but to provide an exceptional education for the truly exceptional. This is the fundamental philosophy underlying our academies' programme."

"We hope that the Aga Khan academies (here and elsewhere in the world) will become leading exemplars of civil society's potential role. Access to these schools (each of which will enroll 700 to 1,200 young men and women) will thus be based solely on merit -- not on financial resources."

Once admitted, students would pursue a diverse and balanced curriculum, one which would evolve constantly as learning expands at an unprecedented pace. "The best schools of the future will be those which select wisely just what learning will best help prepare students for an unpredictable future," he observed.

The curriculum would be designed to qualify students for the widely-respected International Baccalaureate degree -- and beyond that, for admission to the very best university programmes that may interest them -- in India and in every part of the world.

"The International Baccalaureate programme will help us prepare students to meet world-class standards -- joining a community of some 1,800 other schools who use the IB framework, including highly respected institutions here in India. Using that framework, we can ensure that the education we provide will be tied to global concerns and keep pace with global developments," he explained.

Chief Minister Rajasekara Reddy, who was chief guest at the function, complimented the Aga Khan Development Network for taking up such projects where the talents of teachers and students would be nurtured.

He said his government has taken many initiatives to encourage literacy among rural people and assured he would extend all possible support to the Aga Khan Academy.

In a different vein, the Aga Khan said, "We are often told these days that tension and violence in much of the world grows out of some fundamental clash of civilizations -- especially a clash between the Islamic world and the West. I disagree with that assessment. In my view, it is a clash of ignorances, which is to blame."

He said the Aga Khan academies in Hyderabad and elsewhere in the world would seek to remedy such ignorances through the broad study of a variety of world cultures, including the study of Muslim civilizations, a subject which is often overlooked in some parts of the world today.

"Each of our academies can be thought of, in sum, as a centre for cross-cultural education. And the city of Hyderabad, with its rich history as a meeting point for different cultures, including the Christian, Hindu and Muslim traditions, will provide a particularly appropriate setting," he observed.

"The spirit of pluralism will be further enhanced by the fact that each academy will be part of a larger network," he said and pointed out that all of them would be linked electronically and would serve students and faculty throughout the system through video-conferencing and other distance learning technology -- as well as through programmes whereby teachers and students would work for a time in a distant setting.

The principal language of instruction would be English -- today's primary language of global connection. Every graduate would at least be bilingual and many would be trilingual. "In his or her home academy, a student will not only meet other students from a variety of cultural, ethnic and religious backgrounds, but they will get to know one another as friends and neighbours -- something that residential schools are well-equipped to foster. And many will study for at least a year outside their home cultures, as well," he explained.

"The academies will be concerned with the whole of the human being -- mind, body and spirit -- and with the broad range of human aspiration -- intellectual, moral, artistic, physical and spiritual. We envision that our graduates will emerge as well-rounded men and women, enriched by their participation not only in rich learning communities, but in rich living communities as well," he added.