The Association Between Strategic Management Practices and the Sustainability of ASEP Centres in Mwanza Urban, Tanzania

Abstract

This study investigates the association between strategic management practices and the sustainability of Alternative Secondary Education Pathway (ASEP) Centres in Mwanza Urban, Tanzania. Despite their central role in the country's second-chance education system, ASEP centres face persistent sustainability challenges that remain inadequately understood. Grounded in institutional sustainability theory, the study employed a cross-sectional mixed-methods design, integrating quantitative data from forty (40) facilitators and qualitative data from six (6) centre coordinators. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, multiple regression, and thematic analysis. The five constructs–strategic planning, leadership and governance, resource mobilisation, stakeholder involvement, and monitoring and evaluation–were implemented at uniformly low levels. The regression model accounted for 70.9% of the variance in sustainability outcomes (R² = 0.709).
Stakeholder involvement had the largest standardised coefficient in this model (β =0.35, p = 0.002), while resource mobilisation was non-significant (β = 0.19, p =0.135). These findings reveal that even marginal variations in weak practices are associated with comparatively larger differences in sustainability outcomes in severely under-institutionalised settings. The study recommends that the Institute of Adult Education (IAE) establish community engagement committees, adopt distributed leadership models, mandate centre-level strategic plans, and introduce standardised monitoring and evaluation frameworks to address the identified structural deficits.