Assessment of the Physical Accessibility of Public Primary and Secondary Schools in Kaduna State, Nigeria

This paper is aimed at evaluating the nature of physical accessibility of public primary and secondary schools in Kaduna State. The study used Global Positioning System (Map 78) to ascertain the location of the schools through field observation and School Accessibility Assessment Form (SAAF) for collecting information directly from teachers and students. GIS techniques was employed to show the spatial distribution and analysis. Multistage sampling method was adopted 3 urban Local Government Areas (LGAs) were purposive selected while 2 LGAs were randomly selected from each senatorial zone. ArcGIS (10.6) and Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (v25) was used for data analysis using. The study revealed that the physical distance travelled varied from 1.13 to 1.7km in urban areas to public primary schools and 1.3 to 2.25km in rural areas in the state. It also revealed that variation in the travelled distance to public secondary schools varied from 2.96 to 4.32km in the rural areas and from 2.12km to 2.45km in urban areas across the state. The study revealed that 34% of total children travelled below 2km to public primary school and about 80% travelled more 2km to public secondary school. It concluded that the state has not met the expected 2km walk distance to public schools; uneven distribution of public schools; most of the public schools are concentrated in the urban areas at the expense of the rural suburbs. Government should provide additional public schools in rural areas and allocate substantial part of its budget to the educational sector.