The International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences, Volume XLI-B2, 2016

XXIII ISPRS Congress, 12–19 July 2016, Prague, Czech Republic

SCHOOL MAPPING AND GEOSPATIAL ANALYSIS OF THE SCHOOLS IN JASRA

DEVELOPMENT BLOCK OF INDIA

S. Agrawal a*, R. D. Gupta b, a

a
GIS Cell, Motilal Nehru National Institute of Technology, Allahabad -211004, U.P., India - sonam@mnnit.ac.in
b
Civil Engineering Department, Motilal Nehru National Institute of Technology, Allahabad -211004, U.P., India -
gupta.rdg@gmail.com

Commission II, WG II/3

KEY WORDS: School Mapping, Catchment, GIS, Thiessen Polygon

ABSTRACT:

GIS is a collection of tools and techniques that works on the geospatial data and is used in the analysis and decision making.
Education is an inherent part of any civil society. Proper educational facilities generate the high quality human resource for any
nation. Therefore, government needs an efficient system that can help in analysing the current state of education and its progress.
Government also needs a system that can support in decision making and policy framing. GIS can serve the mentioned requirements
not only for government but also for the general public. In order to meet the standards of human development, it is necessary for the
government and decision makers to have a close watch on the existing education policy and its implementation condition. School
mapping plays an important role in this aspect. School mapping consists of building the geospatial database of schools that supports
in the infrastructure development, policy analysis and decision making. The present research work is an attempt for supporting Right
to Education (RTE) and Sarv Sikha Abhiyaan (SSA) programmes run by Government of India through the use of GIS. School
mapping of the study area is performed which is followed by the geospatial analysis. This research work will help in assessing the
present status of educational infrastructure in Jasra block of Allahabad district, India.

1. INTRODUCTION
This research work is an attempt to support Right to Education
Education is an inherent part of any civil society. Proper (RTE) and Sarv Sikha Abhiyaan (SSA) program that runs under
education facilities generate the high quality human resource for the Government of India. The Right of Children to Free and
any nation. Therefore, government needs an efficient system Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009, was added in Indian
that can help it in analysing the current state of education and constitution that provide the right of education to a child with
its progress. It also needs a system that can support in decision the obligation on the government to ensure admission,
making and policy framing. Geographic Information System attendance and completion of elementary education of the child
(GIS) can serve the mentioned requirements not only for (Ministry of Human Resource Development, 2016). Various
government but also for the general public. norms for the schools regarding the teachers, infrastructure,
curriculum etc. have been given by this act. SSA is an education
GIS is a collection of tools and techniques that works on the program started in the year 2000-01 with the aim of providing
geospatial data and is used in the analysis and decision making. the universal access of education to the children. Such types of
GIS is required for very diverse fields from government to programs are the prerequisite for the implementation of RTE
common public, from commercial to social service, from act. Implementation of this act will place a huge financial
science to defence. According to Bolstad (2012), GIS is "a burden on the government (Mehrotra, 2012). Therefore, policy
computer-based system to aid in the collection, maintenance, makers need an efficient system that can support them in the
storage, analysis, output, and distribution of spatial data and implementation of this act.
information" whereas Burrough (1986) defined GIS as "a
powerful set of tools for storing and retrieving at will, This research work required large amount of data. It was
transforming and displaying spatial data from the real world for collected from different sources like Survey of India (SOI)
a particular set of purposes". GIS is a system that works on the topographical maps, GPS data of school location and academic
spatial as well as attribute data. data. Various types of maps were generated using GIS, which
gives better visualization of education related data. It helps the
Today location component of the data become very important. It decision makers in indentifying the hotspots.
is estimated that the eighty percent of the data contains spatial
aspect (Klinkenberg, 2003). During the recent past, availability In order to meet the standards of human development, it is
of location data have increased exponentially due to the growth necessary for the government and decision makers to have a
in the field of remote sensing, Global Positioning System close watch on the existing education policy and its
(GPS), GPS enabled smart devices, etc. This has resulted in the implementation condition. This research work will help in
increase of the demand of GIS and web GIS. Now most of the assessing the success of any policy. In case of any
people, facilities and phenomena can be reference by the discrepancies, it will help in identifying the problem areas and
location (Openshaw and Abrahart, 2000).

This contribution has been peer-reviewed.

doi:10.5194/isprsarchives-XLI-B2-145-2016 145
 The International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences, Volume XLI-B2, 2016
XXIII ISPRS Congress, 12–19 July 2016, Prague, Czech Republic

can also support in finding the remedial solutions of the 4.2 GPS field survey
problems.
The location of each school of Jasra block has been collected
2. STUDY AREA using the hand held GPS. Trimble Juno 3B handheld GPS with
2-5 meter real time accuracy has been used for this purpose.
The Uttar Pradesh is located in the northern part of India. It is There are 204 schools in Jasra block. Field survey using GPS
divided into 75 districts. Allahabad is one of the important has been done to collect the location of all these schools. This
districts known for its educational and religious significance. data was later downloaded on the computer and then converted
According to the administrative division, Allahabad district is into the point shapefile.
divided into eight tehsils. Tehsils are further divided into twenty
community development blocks. Blocks are then divided into 4.3 Attribute Data Collection
villages. Bara tehsil is divided into Jasra and Shankargarh
blocks. Jasra block is the study area of this research work. The Education data like number of schools, student enrolment,
study area lies between 25°07'20'' N to 25°21' 28'' N latitudes gender and caste wise enrolment, number of teachers,
and 81°38'06' E to 81°50'27'' E longitudes. It covers 265.38 km2 examination results of previous academic session, classrooms
area having the total population of 1,77,185 as per 2011Census condition, repair needs, etc. have been collected from District
of India. There are 114 villages in Jasra block. Information System for Education (DISE), New Delhi, India.
This data served as the attribute data in the geographic database.
3. SCHOOL MAPPING DISE is a school-based annual information system that provides
data on important aspects of a school. It covers all recognized,
Type School mapping is an important part of web GIS in unrecognized, government and private schools. National
education sector. According to (Al-hanbali et al., 2005), University of Educational Planning and Administration
"School mapping is the art and science of building geospatial (NUEPA), New Delhi publishes the school related data which is
databases with relational databases of educational, received from the states.
demographic, social and economic information for schools and
educational directorates to support educational planners and 5. GEOSPTAIAL ANALYSIS OF DATA
decision makers." Hence web GIS works as the visualization
tool and also help in planning and decision making. It could be The geospatial analysis on the collected data has been
used in the infrastructure development and upgradation of performed in this research work under GIS environment. The
schools by combining several indicators (Attfield et al., 2002). school position data collected by the GPS is converted into the
It provides the tools and techniques that handle the education point shapefile. The village boundary is shown as the polygon
from geographic perspective (Mendelsohn, 1996). Many times, shapefile. The analysis has been performed on the basis of
it helps the officials when they require support for making the attribute data collected from the DISE. Various spatial utility
decisions like: maps have been created for this purpose. The results of the
• Is there a requirement of new school? analysis are shown in the form of maps. For these maps datum
• What should be the location of new school? is WGS 84 and projection system is UTM Zone 44N.
• Is there proper space for each student in the existing school?
• In making what-if analysis? 5.1 Literacy Map

In literature, some examples of school mapping can be found. In Figure 1 shows the literacy map of the Jasra block. It is
the paper (Hite, 2008), discussed about the concept and generated with the help of Census, 2011 of India (Census of
development of school mapping. A case study can be found in India, 2011) that provides the population as well as male and
the paper (Galabawa et al., 2002), that discussed the impact of female literacy data. Different colours are used to show the
school mapping in Tanzania and studied its after effects on the literacy rate in the villages. It can be concluded from the map
education. Another work on school mapping was carried out in that in most of the villages, literacy rate is less 65%. The areas
Indian context that help the decision maker in identifying the with black and red colour which includes 16 villages, are of the
new school locations (Govinda, 1999). Another paper major concern because at these villages more than half of the
(Odhiambo and Imwati, 2014), have shown the used GIS for total population is illiterate. Out of 114 only 20 villages have
education in the Kenya. more than 65% of literate population. This map also contains
the pie chart that shows the male literacy by yellow colour while
4. DATA COLLECTION female literacy by green colour. It can be observed that in most
of the villages male literacy is much higher than the female
In the present work, 204 schools have been taken for the school literacy. At no place female literacy is more than the male
mapping which are operational in 114 villages of Jasra block. literacy, except at 6 villages where both are equal. This map
Following steps were taken for the collection of data. helps in locating the hotspots where there is an urgent need to
promote education. Also more efforts are required for the
4.1 Village Boundary Map encouragement of female literacy as it is significantly lower
than the male literacy in most of the villages.
Village map of Jasra block has been taken from National
Information Center (NIC), Government of India. It is used for 5.2 School Location Map
the extraction of village boundary map through georeferencing
and on-screen digitization. Total 114 village boundaries have Figure 2 is showing the position of schools that are collected
been digitized. An attribute table was built that consist of through GPS based field survey. The data collected through
village name, code etc. The census data was also added in this GPS is exported to point shapefile where each point in the map
table that provide total population, gender wise population, is the location of the school listed in DISE data. Each school is
number of literate, etc. labelled by its name.

This contribution has been peer-reviewed.

doi:10.5194/isprsarchives-XLI-B2-145-2016 146
The International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences, Volume XLI-B2, 2016
XXIII ISPRS Congress, 12–19 July 2016, Prague, Czech Republic

Figure 1. Literacy map of Jasra block Figure 3. Area covered by each school

Figure 2. Location of schools collected by GPS survey Figure 4. Population residing inside the school's catchment area

This contribution has been peer-reviewed.

doi:10.5194/isprsarchives-XLI-B2-145-2016 147
The International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences, Volume XLI-B2, 2016
XXIII ISPRS Congress, 12–19 July 2016, Prague, Czech Republic

Figure 5. Boys and girls ratio in school Figure 7. Map showing the category of each school assigned on
the basis of class

Figure 6. Student teacher ratio in school Figure 8. Map showing the toilet student ratio in school

This contribution has been peer-reviewed.

doi:10.5194/isprsarchives-XLI-B2-145-2016 148
 The International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences, Volume XLI-B2, 2016
XXIII ISPRS Congress, 12–19 July 2016, Prague, Czech Republic

5.3 School Catchment Map 5.6 School Student Teacher Ratio Map

Figure 3 is showing the catchment area of each school. Here Figure 6 shows the student teacher ratio of each school. As per
catchment area represents the influence area of the school RTE, this ratio is ought to be 40:1 and 35:1 at primary and
means the population residing within this area will prefer the upper primary level respectively in every school. From the
given school more than any other school. One of the method for research investigations it is found that out of 204 schools, 123
generating the catchment area is by using the thiessen polygons schools are meeting this standard ratio which are shown by the
(Fotheringham et al., 2001). Thiessen polygon is created on a red colour in the map. It is evident from the map that at many
set of points by joining the nearby points through lines and then schools this ratio is not maintained. It can be used to identify
drawing the perpendicular bisector of these lines. These the schools where there is a need to employ more teachers. The
bisectors join together and create the thiessen polygon (Brassel schools with pink and black colour are those where there is an
and Reif, 1979). It is a popular method used in many market urgent need of teachers as there is only one teacher on more
analysis and meteorological studies like Derakhshan and than hundred students. There are 10 such schools where this
Talebbeydokhti, 2011; Halls et al., 2001; Lewis, 2008 and ratio is more than 100:1.
Widaningrum, 2015. In the given map, for any location of the
user, the nearest school can be easily identified by point in 5.7 School Category Map
polygon analysis.
Figure 7 is showing the category of each school which is given
Large catchment area suggests the need of the new school at of the basis of the number of class. As per RTE, the school
that place because it may has high population coverage and the category is primary if it is only from class 1 to 5, primary with
child has to travel long distance to reach the school. For upper primary for class 1 to 8, primary with upper primary and
example in the given map, the area of the largest catchment is secondary and higher secondary for class 1 to 12, upper primary
3.659 sq. km. which covers the population of 1571 people and only for class 6 to 8, upper primary with secondary and higher
the child living near the border will have to travel 1.84 km. to secondary for class 6 to 12, primary with upper primary and
reach the school. As per the State Government of the Jasra secondary for class 1 to 10, upper primary with secondary for
block, children in classes I-V need a school within 1 km while class 6 to 10. From this map, it is evident that most of the
for those in classes VI-VIII requires a school within a distance schools are primary. Out of 204 schools in Jasra block, 124 are
of 3 km (Uttar Pradesh State Education Department, 2011). primary schools. Only 7 schools are up to class 12.Thus, there is
a need of more higher secondary schools.
5.4 School Population Covered Map
5.8 School Toilet Student Ratio Map
Figure 4 is showing the population covered by each school. It is
calculated by multiplying the area of the thiessen polygon by There is a direct relation between the students and the basic
the population density (Black et al., 2004). Population density facilities like water, toilets, electricity, etc. One such map is
is available at the village level from census data. Therefore it is given in figure 8, which shows the toilet student ratio of each
required to identify the area of different villages that is covered school. As per RTE, this ratio is 40:1, i.e. there must be one
by each thiessen polygon and then multiplying the area by the toilet per forty students. Out of 204 schools, 123 schools are
corresponding population density. Population covered is then meeting this standard ratio which are shown by the pink colour
computed by taking the sum of the previously obtained values. in the map.. At 65 schools there is 1 toilet on 41 to 80 students,
High population density in the catchment area of any school at 37 schools there is 1 toilet on 81 to 150 students, at 10
depicts the need of more schools in that area. The maximum schools there is 1 toilet on 151 to 200 students and at 8 schools
population covered by a school is 3423 whose catchment area there is 1 toilet on more than 200 students. Thus there are many
size is 2.10 sq km. As per the State Government of the study schools that urgent need to build more toilets as shown in the
area, for schools of classes I-V need to cover the population of map.
at least 300 while for those of classes VI-VIII need to cater at
least 800 population (Uttar Pradesh State Education 6. CONCLUSIONS
Department, 2011). Thus this map helps in the identification of
those schools whose population coverage beyond the GIS is creating the innovative ways for the analysts and
government norms and the possible zones for the new schools. decision makers to critically examine the diverse range of social
and economic problems. The present paper illustrates how the
5.5 School Gender Ratio Map GIS can be used in accessing the current state of education and
also in locating the probable places of concern in the study area.
Figure 5 is showing the gender ratio of each school. Gender The various analyses have been carried out on the mapped
ratio is the number of girl students per thousand boy students. schools. The possible concerns have been raised along with
The schools where the boys are more than the girls can be each type of analysis. These issues need to be tackled for better
discovered from the map. As the female literacy is lower than education system. This paper provides the framework of the
the male literacy in the study area, this map can help in application of GIS in the education field, in particular, school
identifying the schools where there is need to promote female mapping and their geospatial analysis required for the success
literacy in order to reduce this imbalance. Out of 204 schools in of Right to Education (RTE) and Sarv Sikha Abhiyaan (SSA)
Jasra block, 3 schools do not have any students, at 1 school programmes of Government of India.
there is only boys, at 2 schools there is only girls, at 125 schools
boys are less than girls, at 6 schools boys and girls are equal and ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
at 67 schools boys are more than girls. It can also be observed
that at many schools the number of girls is more than that of The authors would like to thanks Mr. Dharamendra Kumar
boys, which reflects the changing mindset of the people towards Meena for his field assistance in capturing the location of
the girl child education. schools using hand held GPS, which is used in this study.

This contribution has been peer-reviewed.

doi:10.5194/isprsarchives-XLI-B2-145-2016 149
 The International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences, Volume XLI-B2, 2016
XXIII ISPRS Congress, 12–19 July 2016, Prague, Czech Republic

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