Institutional energy use and clean cooking transition pathways in public schools in southern Tanzania

Public schools remain underexamined in clean cooking research despite their substantial energy demands and distinctive financing and governance arrangements. This study examined institutional energy use and expenditure, the operational consequences of energy insecurity, barriers to the clean cooking transition, schools’ energy-management and adaptation strategies, and the comparative suitability of alternative cooking technologies in southern Tanzania. We conducted a mixed-methods study in 27 purposively selected public schools across five local government authorities in the Ruvuma and Mtwara regions. We collected data through semi-structured interviews, field observations, and available school records. We analysed them using descriptive statistics, thematic analysis, and an equal-weight multi-criteria assessment of six cooking technologies across nine economic, technical, environmental, and institutional criteria. Firewood was the primary cooking fuel in 26 of the 27 schools, whereas grid electricity was the principal lighting source in 23 schools, revealing a divergence between electrification and the cooking energy transition. Firewood-dependent boarding schools spent approximately TZS 1.59–2.80 million per month on cooking fuel, compared with approximately TZS 1.55 million in the boarding school using LPG. Energy insecurity disrupted water pumping, grain milling, administrative activities and laboratory practical work. Limited financing, high initial investment requirements, infrastructure gaps, limited technical capacity, unreliable energy supplies, and institutional approval processes constrained the transition. Schools responded through energy diversification, backup systems, electricity prioritisation, improved cookstoves, and investment or planned investment in alternative energy systems. Under the equal-weight assessment, electricity and biogas jointly achieved the highest suitability score of 16, followed by LPG at 14. The findings demonstrate that the clean cooking transition in public schools is shaped not simply by technology availability, but by the financial, infrastructural and organisational capacity required to adopt and sustain cleaner systems. By extending clean cooking analysis beyond households, the study provides an institutional basis for planning more sustainable school energy transitions in Tanzania. Clinical trial number Not applicable.