Analyze The Spatial Distribution Pattern And Accessibility Of Primary And Secondary Educational Resources Using GIS-based Methods

Quality education in isolated areas is a major issue in developing countries like Pakistan,as access to formal education is linked to improved life prospects for rural students from poor families.Educational accessibility however,depends on school availability within a minimum spatial distance.The spatial distribution of schools is generally uneven in most of the cities of Northern Pakistan,thus limiting spatial accessibility to formal education at the primary and secondary level.In our research,we build and localized a geo-spatial database to analyzed the mismatched spatial distribution of the primary and secondary schools found in the hilly terrain of Abbottabad city,in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa(KPK),Pakistan.A directional approach has been used to analyze the distributional direction of schools in study area.Multiple point pattern analysis carried out to evaluate the clustering and dispersion of schools.Buffer analysis was carried out to evaluate student to school ratio within radius of 500-meters around highway.Results of nearest neighbor and K-function analysis show an uneven scattered pattern of schools.High schools are more clustered while primary and middle schools are in more or less dispersed pattern,thus this imbalanced-pattern of distribution decreasing accessibility with longer travel times and at higher costs.Using digital elevation model(DEM),cost-weighted distance showed that this spatial distribution extends the travel distance by more than five kilometers for secondary school students living in the northern and western parts of the city.This analysis also identified the least-cost path for students to reach schools with the help of DEM.DEM calculated the slope of study area that is used to find the true distance from road end to school.A Road Network analysis showed diversity in service area distribution around school due to the unavailability and limitation of road data.In order to compare the distribution of schools and distribution of population,supervised classification is performed.All the results of analysis directed towards an uneven and mismatched distribution of schools in study area because of unavailability of geo-spatial data.We conclude that localizing the geo-spatial data,spatial restructuring,and reorganization of schools in the study area would enhance student access to school facilities.