Arusha — The Community Development Training Institute based at Tengeru near Arusha will start offering degree courses from next month.

The prime minister Mizengo Pinda is expected to launch the programme during his visit there during which he will also lay a foundation stone for a library building.

The institute, founded in 1963, will offer Bachelor of Arts degrees in Community Development in three main areas, according to the principal Mr. Anatory B. Bunduki.

These are Community Development Programmes Management, Gender and Development and Participatory Planning and Management.

The institute started to offer Advanced Diploma in Community development in the early 1980s and is fully accredited by the National Council for Technical Education (NACTE).

Operating under the ministry of Community Development, Gender and Children, CDTI has in the last five years been implementing restructuring programme aimed at transforming its current advanced diploma course programmes into undergraduate degree programmes.

Mr. Bunduki said the degree course has been introduced because of the increasing demand of community development experts in various institutions in the public and private sector, especially non-government institutions.

Meanwhile, some Sh. 6 billion is needed for massive rehabilitation of buildings at the Community Development Training Institute at Tengeru near Arusha.

Anatory Bunduki , the principal said last week that many structures at the institute established 45 years ago were run down.

He said they must undergo major renovations before CDTI embarks on expansion programmes including the introduction of degree courses slated for later this year.

He added that the college which operated under the ministry of Community Development, Gender and Children, has been too much depended on government budget, at times leading to its financial woes.

Currently large library building is under construction at the cost of Sh. 425m. It has the capacity to accommodate about 200 library users at a time.

However, Mr. Bunduki said the institute was still facing a problem of inadequate accommodation for its increasing number of students.

The number of students is expected to rise to 788 in the coming academic year when the degree programme is introduced but it can accommodate only about three quarters of trainees.