At the time of independence in 1961, the Christian churches were responsible for over 60% of the education in the country.  One of the stated goals of the newly independent nation was to place the education of its youth under national control.  The churches that had been in the forefront of the educational scene suddenly found themselves with only their Bible schools and theological seminaries.  In their dialogue with the government they were advised that they could continue with secondary education in preparing workers for the church by establishing junior seminaries that would be entirely under church control, but following the national syllabus and doing national exams.  And so, the Lutheran Junior Seminary was born.

The secondary school that began with only Form I to IV (9^th to 12^th grade) now has Forms V and VI as well, which are the equivalent of first year of junior college.  There are 40 students per class in the first four classes and 120 in Forms V and VI, making a total of 280 students.  There are more advanced level students because they study for only three examination subjects in various combination groups such as physics, chemistry, and biology; history, English, and divinity; and geography, economics, and math.  The great variety of combinations offered enables the church to prepare people for service in a wide number of fields.  At present there are about twenty teachers including two missionaries.

The centre serves the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania, (whose membership is spread throughout Tanzania), as well as the Anglican and Moravian churches represented in the leadership department, and most Christian groups in its language department.  With the combination of all of the departments, the Lutheran Junior Seminary community is nearly 800 people strong, and is made up of the secondary school students, teachers, leadership training students, language school students and their teachers, and other workers.