This website will take you through a range of programmes and projects that are offered and implemented at IAE. We hope to provide all the information you need as far as our institution is concerned.

IAE is a unique institution. It was established in early 1960s, as part of what is now University of Dar es Salaam, just before independence from the British rule. It was established during the times when literacy rates among adults were cited as low as 15%; when the educated populace consisted of only 480 secondary school graduates, and less than 100 university graduates; and when the majority of the population lived in rural poverty, with little access to quality education.

The Institute of Adult Education Act number 12 of 1975 established this institution as an autonomous government organisation responsible for adult education, under the ministry responsible for education. The role of IAE then was to provide education opportunities to adults to enable them get knowledge and skills necessary for their active participation in the process of social and economic development. In the words of Mwalimu Nyerere, the country needed to ‘begin by educating adults’ since investing in adult education was more effective than depending on the children’s education.

Ever since, IAE has been involved in the literacy and mass education campaigns, notably, those of the 1970s up to 1980s that saw Tanzania taking one of the highest ranks in the world’s literacy rates – around 90% of the population was literate by 1986. In addition, through the National Correspondence Institute (NCI) (now an IAE’s section on open schooling), it was this institution that in 1970s designed and implemented the teacher education programme by distance that trained around 40,000 primary teachers for UPE implementation by 1977. Through NCI many youth and adults could continue with secondary education by correspondence.

Today IAE continues to work on improving adult education operations in the country. Operating in three campuses in Dar es Salaam, Mwanza and Morogoro; and through regional offices in almost all regions of Tanzania Mainland, IAE has degree, diploma and certificate programmes for adult education practitioners. IAE coordinates provision of non-formal secondary education in the country that is offered in open schools all around the country. IAE has taken an active role in literacy and mass education programmes, especially in development and implementation of the National Adult Literacy and Mass Education Strategy 2018-2024.

To all current and prospective students, IAE is an institution of your choice. If you want to make a difference in the community, then begin by educating adults. We promise to take you through a fruitful learning journey. And always remember the maxim: Education Has No End.

You are very much welcome.

Michael W. Ng’umbi, PhD