Equitable Cities: Spatial Pattern and Accessibility of Public Secondary Schools in Ogbomoso North, Nigeria.

Abstract

Against the background of uncontrolled urbanization, the sprawling slum formation and the need for equitable distribution of basic facilities in cities, this paper analyses the spatial pattern of public secondary schools in Ogbomoso North local government with the view to suggest necessary means of improving urban access to basic facilities and services. The inventory of the location of the public secondary schools was taken;spatial analysis and conformity with the acceptable service radius were appraised. Household survey was conducted on 526 respondents using a structured questionnaire administered through multistage sampling system.Likert method was used to scale the ordinal data, making them amenable to parametric testing. Nearest neighbor analysis technique was used to explain the spatial pattern of public secondary schools in the study area using Geographic Information System (GIS). Buffering analysis was also done to show the catchment area of the schools and explain the distance accessibility to them viz-a-viz the acceptable service radii. With the nearest neighbor index of 0.57, meaning that the schools are relatively Buffering analysis showed that 47.9% of Ogbomoso North Local Government is not served with a public secondary school within 1600m radius. The study thus recommends the preparation of a functional master plan that will be sensitive to ergonomic space usage and equitable city development.