T h e need to provide education to adults in the United Republic of Tanzania, has been the major concern of the Party and government ever since the Adult Education Year of 1970. In spite of various adult education innovations that have been introduced in the country to date, the majority of the recipients are functionally illiterate. These innovations which are, inter alia, functional literacy, post literacy, workers' education, and para-literacy have not enabled the adult learners to improve their living conditions. In the countryside, poor housing and health conditions, conservative cultural beliefs, deforestation as well as soil erosion are the order of the day. While it is true that the national literacy rate is 85 per cent, the figure refers to the acquisition of the three Rs (reading, writing and simple arithmetic) and not to the functional aspects. This explains wh y adult educational innovations have failed to transform people's living conditions, for they have tended to be conceptualized at the level of literacy per se by the implementors. Th e way the innovations are introduced and understood, determine to a larger extent the way such innovations are implemented.