Who is responsible for your data

Tanzania Institute of Education (TIE) operates MEWAKA and is responsible for deciding why and how personal data is processed for the platform. MEWAKA supports continuous professional development for teachers and other education participants in Tanzania.

Information collected

The information collected depends on your role and how you use MEWAKA. It may include:

• Identity and contact details, including your name, phone number, email address, gender, profile image, and account identifier.
• Professional details, including user type, school, college or institution, organization, region, district, ward, subjects taught, and education-related role.
• Programme-application information, including the programme and college selected, current school and location, answers to additional questions, application status, reviewer remarks, head-teacher approval, and teaching qualification documents.
• Examination-verification data, including Form Four or education examination index number, examination type and year, candidate names, sex, PREM number, examination centre, division, points, subjects and grades returned by NECTA, and confirmation of the displayed result.
• Account and security information, including password records stored in protected form, login sessions, access tokens, verification status, and account recovery events.
• Learning records, including enrolments, recently accessed courses, progress, activity completion, quiz and assessment attempts, grades, feedback, badges, and certificates.
• Content you submit, including profile changes, forum posts, messages, uploaded files, support requests, and survey or feedback responses.
• Community-safety information, including reports you submit, reported post snapshots, blocked-user choices, moderation status, and policy acceptance records.
• Technical and security records generated when the service is used, such as request times, IP address, browser or app information, errors, and audit logs.

How information is collected

MEWAKA receives information directly from you and automatically as the service operates. Some professional details may also be confirmed or managed by authorised education administrators.

• From registration, phone verification, profile completion, account recovery, and profile updates.
• From course enrolment, viewing content, completing activities, assessments, discussions, and certificate generation.
• From authorised schools, institutions, course facilitators, or education administrators where they manage participation and records.
• From the National Examinations Council of Tanzania (NECTA) when you request verification. MEWAKA sends the supplied examination index, year, examination type, and first name to NECTA and receives the matching candidate and result data.
• From the website, mobile API, and security logs when your browser or mobile device communicates with MEWAKA.

Why information is used

TIE uses MEWAKA information to:

• Create and manage accounts, verify users, authenticate sessions, and provide role-appropriate access.
• Deliver courses, save progress, administer assessments, record completion, and issue or verify certificates.
• Verify examination records, validate and assess programme applications, route them to the selected college, communicate decisions, and administer admission and enrolment.
• Send essential service, security, enrolment, learning, and account-recovery communications.
• Provide support, investigate errors, understand platform use, and improve content and service performance.
• Prevent misuse, protect accounts, enforce platform rules, and maintain reliable audit records.
• Review reported forum content, apply the Community Guidelines, honour blocked-user choices, and respond to safety concerns.
• Prepare authorised education statistics and programme reports, using aggregated or limited information where appropriate.

Legal basis and consent

Processing is carried out to provide the requested learning service, perform TIE's public education responsibilities, comply with applicable law, protect legitimate security interests, and, where required, on the basis of consent. This policy is guided by the Personal Data Protection Act, 2022 of Tanzania and applicable regulations.

Where processing depends on consent, you may withdraw that consent. Withdrawal does not affect processing already lawfully completed and may limit features that require the affected information.

Automated checks and application review

MEWAKA uses automatic checks to validate field formats, compare submitted names with NECTA records, confirm required information, apply configured course-completion rules, and protect the service. A mismatch or incomplete field may prevent submission until it is corrected.

Programme approval or rejection is made by authorised personnel and is not based solely on an automated check. You may ask TIE to review an apparent error, correct inaccurate data, or explain a decision that significantly affects you.

When information may be shared

Access is limited to people and organisations that need the information for an authorised MEWAKA purpose. Information may be shared with:

• Authorised TIE, Ministry, education authority, school, college, or institution personnel responsible for the programme.
• NECTA, to verify examination information, and the selected college or authorised application reviewers, to assess and administer your programme application.
• Technology, hosting, SMS, support, and security providers acting for TIE under appropriate instructions and safeguards.
• Course facilitators and participants where your name or submitted content must appear in a course, discussion, assessment, or collaborative activity.
• Regulators, law-enforcement bodies, courts, auditors, or other parties where disclosure is legally required or necessary to protect users and the service.

TIE requires service providers and other authorised partners that process personal data for MEWAKA to apply the same or equivalent privacy and security protections described in this policy.

MEWAKA does not sell personal data or use it for commercial advertising.

Mobile storage, biometrics, and external content

The mobile app stores your authenticated session, language and theme preferences, a limited cache of recently fetched learning data, and a record of downloaded files on your device so the app can work efficiently. Signing out clears the active session and application query cache; downloaded files and device backups may remain until removed through the device.

If you choose biometric login, the app stores your phone number and password in protected application storage on that device and asks the operating system to authenticate you before using them. Your fingerprint or face template remains under the control of the device operating system; MEWAKA does not receive that template.

The app uses the device system picker when you choose a profile image, attach a document, or select a file location. It receives only the item you select and does not request camera, microphone, or broad photo and storage access. Downloads are kept in app-specific storage and are shared with another app only when you choose to open or share them.

The website uses Moodle session and preference cookies and similar local storage needed for login, security, language, and service operation. The mobile app does not use personal data for commercial advertising.

Course content may open services such as YouTube or another external provider. Information handled by those services is governed by their own privacy terms.

External services and transfers outside Tanzania

A provider used for hosting, messaging, video, support, security, or another platform function may process information outside Tanzania. TIE must use such services only where the transfer is lawful and appropriate contractual, technical, organisational, and regulatory safeguards are in place. NECTA verification is sent directly to the configured NECTA service.

Security responsibilities

TIE applies account controls, permission checks, audit logging, secure session handling, backups, and operational safeguards appropriate to the service. No digital system can guarantee absolute security.

Keep your password and device secure, do not share access tokens, sign out from shared devices, and report suspected unauthorised access promptly.

How long information is kept

Information is retained only for as long as it is needed to operate MEWAKA, maintain security and audit records, meet education and certification requirements, resolve disputes, and comply with applicable law. Different records may have different retention periods.

Completion, assessment, and certificate records may be retained after an account becomes inactive because they form part of an official professional learning record. Data that is no longer required will be deleted, anonymised, or securely archived according to approved records procedures.

Your personal data rights

Subject to applicable law and any lawful record-keeping exception, you may ask to be informed about processing; access or correct your data; request erasure, restriction, objection, or portability; withdraw consent; request human review of an automated decision; complain; seek compensation where provided by law; and arrange lawful transmission of applicable rights to an heir after death.

You can initiate an account and data deletion request through Profile in the MEWAKA app or the public account deletion page. Deletion is reviewed securely and cannot remove records TIE is legally required or permitted to retain.

You may complain to TIE and, if the matter is not resolved, contact the Personal Data Protection Commission of Tanzania.

Changes to this policy

TIE may update this policy when MEWAKA features, operational practices, or legal requirements change. The latest version will be available on the website and in the app and may be accompanied by an additional notice where a material change requires one.