ASSESSING THE SPATIAL PATTERN OF PUBLIC PRIMARY SCHOOLS IN MORO LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA OF KWARA STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

Education is one of the most significant investments a nation can make in its citizens that can address poverty and inequality in the nearest future. This study sought to assess the spatial pattern of public primary schools in Moro Local Government Area (LGA) of Kwara State, Nigeria. The purpose of the study was to look at the geographic distribution and the level of inequality of the public primary schools in the study area. The number, names and addresses of public primary schools were obtained from the unit of the planning, research and statistics department of Moro Local Government Education Authority (MGLEA) while the data on the geographic location of the public primary schools were gotten via GPS device (Mreno 120, Garmin). Descriptive statistics such as frequency, percentages and Lorenz curve were used to assess the distribution of public primary schools in the study area. These data were also analyzed using Nearest Neighbour Analysis (NNA) to derive the spatial pattern of public primary schools in the area. Findings revealed that there are one hundred and fifty six (156) public primary schools in Moro LGA. Findings further revealed that Malete had the highest percentage of public primary schools with 10.3%, followed by Megida with 9.6% while Ajanaku and Pakunma had the least public primary schools, with 1.9% and 2.6%, respectively. The NNA result of the spatial pattern of public primary schools produced a clustered pattern at 0.01% significance level with the Nearest Neighbour Ratio (NNR) of 0.86 and a Z-Score of -3.39.   The paper consequently recommends that Moro LGC should liaise with the Kwara state government and other relevant stakeholders in order to ensure that the allocation of primary schools is distributed equitably throughout the LGA for easy accessibility.