Dissertation (MA Education)The role of adult education for national development has remained critical for many decades irrespective of time and space differences. This study investigated the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of adult education programmes in Tanzania. Data were collected from 31 informants sampled from Chamwino district and Dodoma municipality through purposive, purposive-random sampling and snowball sampling. Data were collected through qualitative methods, i.e. interviews, observation and documentary review and analysed deductively starting with the main themes to the specific ones. The study found that adult education offers adult learners‟ opportunities to grow both mentally and economically as they get employment and their ability to participate in different issues is widened. Despite this strength, adult education in Tanzania faces weaknesses, including lack of awareness of the society members, insufficiently qualified personnel, and bad location of the centres. Further, the Adult Education is threatened by the lack of political will to develop the centres and insufficient fund. Following these findings, the researcher concluded that adult education is a panacea to combat three enemies of the nation namely poverty, ignorance and diseases among the school drop outs, adults who could not access formal education at the appropriate age and those who need to upgrade their knowledge in different fields of study. Adult Education is at risk because there is no enough investment and little +awareness of its importance in the country. Thus, the researcher recommends for immediate intervention by the government to empower adult centres for effective services to the learners and raise of awareness among its people.