Julius Nyerere was a respected politician in Africa who advocated for education and social policies focused on self-reliance, equality, and countering colonial influences. His philosophy emphasized integrating education into daily life to promote self-determination and collective progress over individual luxury. While his policies faced challenges in implementation and resource constraints, they achieved mass literacy campaigns and made primary education widely available using local languages.

1. JULIUS NYERERE
One of Africa’s most respected figures,
Julius Nyerere (1922 – 1999) was a
politician of principle and intelligence.
Known as Mwalimu or teacher
he had a vision of education and
social action that was rich with possibility

2. The objective of socialism in the United Republic of Tanzania is to build a
society in which all members have equal rights and equal opportunities; in
which all can live in peace with their neighbours without suffering or imposing
injustice, being exploited, or exploiting; and in which all have a gradually
increasing basic level of material welfare before any individual lives in luxury.
(Nyerere 1968: 340)

3. NYERERE’S PHILOSOPHY
Nyerere set out his vision in ‘Education for Self
Reliance’ (reprinted in Nyerere 1968)
Education had to work for the common good, foster
co-operation and promote equality. Further, it had to
address the realities of life in Tanzania.

4. EDUCATIONAL POLICY
There was a strong concern to counteract the colonialist
assumptions and practices of the dominant, formal means
of education. He saw it as enslaving and oriented to
‘western’ interests and norms.
As Yusuf Kassam (1995: 250) has noted, Nyerere’s
educational philosophy can be approached under two
main headings: education for self-reliance; and adult
education, lifelong learning and education for liberation.
His interest in self-reliance shares a great deal with
Gandhi’s approach.

5. SELF RELIANCE VS WESTERN EDUCATION
 Formal education is basically elitist in nature, catering to the needs
and interests of the very small proportion of those who manage to
enter the hierarchical pyramid of formal schooling (Nyerere, 1968
267).
 The education system divorces its participants from the society for
which they are supposed to be trained.
 The system breeds the notion that education is synonymous with
formal schooling, and people are judged and employed on the basis
of their ability to pass examinations and acquire paper
qualifications.
 The system does not involve its students in productive work. Such
a situation deprives society of their much-needed contribution to
the increase in national economic output and also breeds among
the students a contempt for manual work. (Kassam 1995: 251)

6. LIFELONG LEARNING AND EDUCATION FOR
LIBERATION
In the Declaration of Dar es Salaam Nyerere
made a call for adult education directed at helping
people to help themselves and for it to
approached as part of life: 'integrated with life and
inseparable from it'. It had two functions. To:
Inspire both a desire for change, and an
understanding that change is possible.
Help people to make their own decisions, and to
implement those decisions for themselves.
(Nyerere 1978: 29, 30)

7. CHARACTERISTICS OF NYERERE’S
PHILOSOPHY
 It should be oriented to rural life.
 Teachers and students should engage together in productive
activities and students should participate in the planning and
decision-making process of organizing these activities.
 Productive work should become an integral part of the school
curriculum and provide meaningful learning experience through
the integration of theory and practice.
 The importance of examinations should be downgraded.
 Children should begin school at age 7 so that they would be old
enough and sufficiently mature to engage in self-reliant and
productive work when they leave school.
 Primary education should be complete in itself rather than merely
serving as a means to higher education.
 Students should become self-confident and co-operative, and
develop critical and inquiring minds. (summarized in Kassam 1995:
253

8. METHODOLOGIES
generalists like community development workers,
political activists and religious teachers. Nyerere :
31)
specialists like those concerned with health,
agriculture, child care,management and literacy.
Educators do not give to another something they
possess. Rather, they help learners to develop
their own potential and capacity.
Those that educators work with have experience
and knowledge about the subjects they are
interested in - although they may not realize it.

9. SUCCESSES OF NYERERE’S PHILOSOPHY
He has built up the self-confidence of the man who wants
to learn, by showing him that he is capable of
contributing.
He has demonstrated the relevance of experience and
observation as a method of learning when combined with
thought and analysis.
And he has shown what I might call the "mutuality" of
learning—that is, that by sharing our knowledge we
extend the totality of our understanding and our control
over our lives. (1978: 33)
The teacher of adults is , for Nyerere, a leader - 'a guide
along a path which all will travel together' (ibid.: 34).

10. MORE SUCCESES
Mass literacy campaigns were initiated and carried
through (for example, between 1975 and 1977 illiteracy fell
from 39 to 27 per cent - by 1986 it was at 9.6 per cent); and
various health and agricultural programmes were
mounted e.g the 'Man is Health' campaign in 1973, and
'Food is Life' (1975) (Mushi and Bwatwa 1998). Adult
education initiatives have made a significant contribution
to mobilising people for development (Kassam 1979).
Primary education became virtually universal; curriculum
materials gained distinctively Tanzanian flavours; and
schooling used local language forms (Samoff 1990).

11. CHALLENGES
The policies were never fully implemented
The Philosophy operated against a background of
severe resource shortage
 The world orientation was more individualistic and
capitalist understandings of the relation of education
to production.

12. BIBLIOGRAPHY
 Books by Julius Nyerere:
 Nyerere, J. (1968) Freedom and Socialism. A Selection from Writings & Speeches, 1965-1967, Dar es Salaam: Oxford
University Press. This book includes The Arusha Declaration; Education for self-reliance; The varied paths to
socialism; The purpose is man; and socialism and development.
 Nyerere, J. (1974) Freedom & Development, Uhuru Na Maendeleo, Dar es Salaam: Oxford University Press. Includes
essays on adult education; freedom and development; relevance; and ten years after independence.
 Nyerere, J. (1977) Ujamaa-Essays on Socialism, London: Oxford University Press.
 Nyerere, J. (1979) Crusade for Liberation, Dar es Salaam: Oxford University Press.
 See, also:
 Nyerere, J. (1978) '"Development is for Man, by Man, and of Man": The Declaration of Dar es Salaam' in B. Hall and J.
R. Kidd (eds.) Adult Learning: A design for action, Oxford: Pergamon Press.
 Material on Julius Nyerere:
 Assensoh, A. B. (1998) African Political Leadership: Jomo Kenyatta, Kwame Nkrumah, and Julius K. Nyerere, New York:
Krieger Publishing Co.
 Kassam, Y. (1995) 'Julius Nyerere' in Z. Morsy (ed.) Thinkers on Education, Paris: UNESCO Publishing.
 Legum, C. and Mmari, G. (ed.) (1995) Mwalimu : The Influence of Nyerere, London: Africa World Press.
 Samoff, J. (1990) ‘"Modernizing" a socialist vision: education in Tanzania’, in M. Carnoy and J. Samoff (eds.) Education
and Social Transition in the Third World, Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press.
 Other references
 Barker, R. (1994) Philosophies of Education: An introductory course, Harare, College Press Publishers
 Hinzen, H. and Hundsdorfer, V. H. (eds.) (1979) The Tanzanian Experience. Education for liberation and development,
Hamburg: UNESCO Institute for Education
