Professor Agnes Fellicia Njabili [née Mushi] is a science graduate of the University of Dar es Salaam of the graduating class of 1970. She was born on 8th December 1946 in Machame, Moshi where she had her primary and first part of her secondary education at Nkwarungo and Nshara primary schools (for Standards 1-4 and 5-8 respectively) and at Machame girls secondary school (for Form I-IV) in the years between 1954 and 1964. In 1965 and 1966 she was at Jangwani Girls, in Dar es Salaam, where she pursued senior secondary forms V and VI and passed the ‘A-Level’ (advanced-level) exams in science subjects - Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Mathematics. It was from Jangwani—with evidently high passes—that she joined the Faculty of Science of the University of East Africa at University College Dar es Salaam for a BSc (Ed) degree programme in Botany, Zoology and Education. She not only continued to be a hard worker but also a habitual laboratory experimenter in the science labs! Yet, one point “vividly recalled” about her university life was as much share of scholastic concentration in the experiments as her love of and commitment to sport! In 1970, when she graduated, she was equally poised to deep study through the science lab at the school of her posting but also further professional orientation of her school through physical education, not least sport and games on the school’s grounds

Her immediate posting after university studies was at Ashira secondary school in Moshi, where she was immediately appointed Assistant Headmistress and also head of the science department. Evidently, she became a new force and role model not only in the school science lab but also out on the school’s play grounds. In 1974, based at her school Ashira, she was appointed team manager for the Tanzania National Team to the 20th Commonwealth Games at Christ Church in New Zealand, where the team won a Gold Medal, setting a world record for the 1500 metres, accompanied also with a bronze medal for 400 metres. Next in her professionally upward mobility was Agnes’s transfer to the Institute of Education, then part of the University of Dar es Salaam, at which she worked as a Curriculum Developer. There, she doubled up for a part-time teaching appointment in the Department of Education, particularly in research methods, educational evaluation and curriculum theory and design. She was frequently co-organiser with the Department for joint research seminars. She subsequently rose within the ranks of the Institute from Curriculum Developer (1975-1976) to Senior Curriculum Developer (1977 1981), Principal Curriculum Developer (1981 1986) and Chief Curriculum Developer (1986 1987) before leaving for an academic position at the University of Botswana after June 1987. She worked in Botswana for some eight years (July 1987-1995) after which she moved to the University of Namibia where she taught for another five years (May 1995-2000). Professor Njabili relocated back to Tanzania after a total of about 1½ decades of service in higher education in southern Africa. She joined t he National Examinations Council of Tanzania (NECTA) in December 2000 as Chief Examinations Officer and Head of the Research, Monitoring and Evaluation Unit, more specifically overseeing the evaluation and data processing activities. Ultimately, she joined the University of Dar es Salaam in February 2006 as Professor of Education in the School of Education’s Department of Educational Psychology and Curriculum Studies, from where she formally retired in 2019. Throughout her career, Professor Njabili has demonstrated and trained others in the value of social and educational changes that originate from innovativeness in developing, testing and applying curricular models of thought for a period of time, and which must be followed by regular and consistent field research and evaluation. Innovations and changes in society go in tandem with appropriate curricular adaptations in schools and in an education system in general.

In addition to her BSc in education (1970), Professor Njabili possesses a M.Ed. degree from the University of California, Los Angeles (1976) and a PhD in educational studies from the University of Hull, UK (1982 1985). She has attended or else helped to organise numerous national conferences and symposia on various educational themes, conducted many evaluation and measurement consultancies, as well as conducted or else organised intensive training sessions in educational evaluation and measurements for specific professional groups and teachers. It is needless to say that Professor Njabili has published widely, with a record of 14 published books, over 30 journal articles and book chapters, as well as over 30 consultancy reports and training resource materials.