The paper attempts to provide relevant data on the achievements, albeit quantitatively, of the National Correspondence Institute of Tanzania over the past 30 years as a case study in distance education innovation. The case-study data reveal reasons for the near collapse of the distance education programme during the 1990s, and the renewed policy thrust to use distance education to meet expanded secondary education development programmes in the twenty-first century. For Tanzania to achieve equitable socio-economic development, efforts need to be directed to adopting fully-fledged open and distance education policies. It is no longer feasible to achieve equitable access for all citizens to quality education by depending only on conventional formal education systems. Adopting open and distance education learning systems in the twenty-first century is crucial. (Contains 6 figures.)