Spatial Distribution of Public Secondary Schools in Ikeduru Local Government Area, Imo State, Nigeria

Abstract

This study analysed the spatial distribution of public secondary schools in Ikeduru Local Government Area (LGA) of Owerri Senatorial Zone, Imo State and also examined the level of accessibility of students to public secondary schools in their domiciles. Two research questions were raised to guide this study. A descriptive survey research design was adopted. The target population comprised all the 13 public secondary schools in Ikeduru LGA. The sample for the study comprised the 13 public secondary schools purposively selected. The schools were stratified using the stratified sampling technique. 10% of 4,969 students gave 497students as the sample size using the simple random sampling techniques. The instruments designed to collect the primary and secondary data comprised two checklists, namely, School Location Checklist (SLC) and Accessibility of School Network Checklist (ASNC). The data collected were analysed using descriptive statistics. The Geo-statistical analysis was conducted using the ArcGIS for the production of the maps of the study area. The findings revealed, among others that the pattern of distribution of the public secondary schools showed clustered, lopsided and uneven spatial distributions of schools. It was, therefore, recommended among others that, school mapping strategies should be adopted to create database in order to ensure that schools were located in close proximity to students’ homes with respect to population density and catchment area of the students.