IRDP Introduces 11 New Long -Term Courses To Boost Its Academic Performance -

By Valentine Oforo

THE Institute of Rural Development Planning (IRDP)
has successfully managed to increase the number of its long-term programmes
from 26 programmes during the 2022/23 academic year to at least 37 programmes in
2023/24 academic year, being an increase of 11 new programmes.

The impressive development so far achieved by the
Dodoma-based institute with an eye to expand its academic capacity exponential
was unveiled yesterday by the IRDP’s Rector, Prof Hozen Mayaya during his remarks at the institutes’ 16th
convocation ceremony.

In his remarks, Prof Mayaya also detailed that
during the 2022/23 academic year, the State-owned institute has also worked to
review its short course programmes to make them more client-centred.

“The development had fetched the diverse impacts, including
to increase the number of the short courses from nine during 2021/22 academic
year to a total of 20 courses in 2022/23, but also, the number of participating
institutions has also increased from 16 organizations in 2021/2022 to 92 in
2022/23, whereby there was also a significant increase of revenue from 68,880,000/-in
2021/2022 to a total of 194,097,000 in 2022/23,” Prof Mayaya detailed.

Informing over other important milestone so far
achieved by the country’s reputable varsity, the IRDP’s Rector expressed that
there was an important increase in the number of research and publications.

“IRDP has always been encouraging its teaching staff
to conduct research and publish their articles in the reputable journals to
acquire international recognition. I am hereby delighted to inform the public that
our efforts have yielded fruits as three of IRDP fellows were among the 47
Tanzanian academicians who were recently recognized by the Ministry of
Education, Science and Technology following their publications in a highly
reputable international science journals,” the Don added.

Together with that, Prof Mayaya said from research
and consultancy, the IRDP in collaboration with local an international development actors has been implementing several projects, and executed consultancy works in almost
every part of the country.

“Moreover, we had the Eco-Village Project in the
Central Zone, Climate Change in the Northern Zone, United Nations Development Programme
(UNDP) Project in the Lake Zone,
Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) in the Southern
Highland and Marketing Infrastructure, Value Addition and Rural Financing
Programme (MIVARF) at Mbulu district,” he informed.

Winding up his remarks, Prof Mayaya thanked the government and the Ministry of Finance, as well the development partners for
continuing supporting the fast-growing varsity.

He disclosed the institutions as the Food and
Agriculture Organization (FAO), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP),
Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO), the Ministry of Education, Tanzania Education
Authority (TEA), the Tanzania Commission for Universities (TCU), National
Council for Technical and Vocational Education and Training (NACTVET) and the
United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) , to mention
but a few.

Briefing for his side, the IRDP’s Vice Chairperson
of Governing Council, CPA. Dr Samwel Werema, informed that IRDP has managed to
record recommendable infrastructure development, a move that has enabled the
institute to have in place a more conducive teaching and learning environment.

“For example, the Higher Education for economic
Transformation (HEET) project is going to contribute a lot to the improvement
of the teaching and learning in our institute in the use of environment in
our institute specifically in the use of ICT,” he briefed.

The colorful event saw at least 172 students (96
males and 76 females) receiving different prizes for their exceptional performance
in academic and extra-curricular activities.