The curriculum seeks to meet the requirements of basic adult literacy that is reading, writing and arithmetic. However, the learning approach is radically different from that of past classes. Kiroka village in Morogoro rural district about 200 km West of the capital, Dar es Salaam was largely a sleepy place. Poverty, defined as deprivation of the basic necessities of life, hung over the village like the sword of Damocles. The participants, both male and female, are free to set their own learning timetable.
Theory takes only three days a week but practicals continue throughout the week.
Instead of teachers, learning is dispensed by facilitators only. Teachers, he says, usually behave like banks. They are supposed to be the only ones knowing everything while their pupils or students presumably know nothing. Facilitators, however, guide groups or individuals to realise their potential on a mutual exchange basis. The head facilitator is usually the manager of the communally owned mini-economic project who helps with both theory and practice.