Creation of a GIS Database for the Assessment of Secondary Schools within Afikpo

Abstract

Secondary education is a program of public education immediately following primary or elementary schooling. It begins generally at the age of 12 to 14 and continues from four to six years. Some secondary educations, such as vocational schools, is terminal and prepare the student for employment upon graduation. Others lead to advanced training in colleges, universities, or technical schools. Often times, parents and guardians are usually faced with the problem of choice when it comes to the selection of the school they will want their children to attend (especially with the wide gap that exist between public and private school). Some questions that may arise are; should I choose private or public? What facilities have this school? Is the location of this school secure? What is their carrying capacity? This and many more questions are best solved using Geographic Information System (GIS). The aim of this study is to create a GIS database for the management of secondary schools within Afikpo. A satellite imagery of the study area was used as a base map, it was digitized and georeferenced using ArcGIS 9.3 software. Questionnaires were served to principal of secondary schools within Afikpo, some of the questions answered are; name of school, average number of students per class, total number of staff, year of establishment, availability of library, availability of chemistry lab, availability of physics lab, availability of Biology lab, availability of fence. The coordinates of position of each schools gotten with a Garmin 76 hand held GPS receiver were plotted using ArcGIS 9.3 software,  the non-spatial data (attribute data) generated from the questionnaire was used to create the database in ArcGIS environment. The database created will provide the necessary information needed to guide the government and educational authorities in decision-making and will also be a pointer to areas needing urgent attention.