Baladevan Rangaraju's presentation at the "Orientation Programme on Planning and Management of Elementary Education in Urban Areas" conducted by the Department of Comparative Education and International Cooperation , National University of Educational Planning and Administration (NUEPA), NUEPA.

1. O R I E N T A T I O N P R O G R A M M E O N P L A N N I N G A N D M A N A G E M E N T
O F E L E M E N T A R Y E D U C A T I O N I N U R B A N A R E A S 0 3 J A N 2 0 1 2
D E P A R T M E N T O F C O M P A R A T I V E E D U C A T I O N A N D I N T E R N A T I O N A L C O O P E R A T I O N , N U E P A
B A L A D E VA N R A N G A R A J U
D I R E C T O R – I N D I A I N S T I T U T E
School Geo-mapping for Urban
Educational Planning

2. The New Objective of Educational Planning
 Has to move from equalisation of opportunities to
guaranteed opportunities
 Education for children aged 6-14 a constitutional right
under RTE Act, 2009
 New definition of demand estimation: Not whether
households will enroll their children in schools; it is what
kind of education and where (in 1-3 km radius)

3. Educational Planning in Future
 Should start from accurate assessment of number of
existing facilities of all management types
 Assessment of demand in terms of aspiration
English medium in Delhi, Vocational Skills in Gujarat, Madrassas with secular subjects
 Preferred location for the target population
 Requires
Accurate mapping of existing schools
Constant (annual) updation of data on new schools of all types, enrolment figures, catchment area of
each school
 Has to involve beneficiary population

4. School Mapping for Urban Educational Planning
 Planning of new schools is dynamic
 Expansion of urban area limits
 Urgent demand for new schools
 Changes in population distribution
 Demand for quicker expansion of capacity
 Changes in target age group population number & definition
 Demand for upgradation to higher grades
 New city plans affecting infrastructure
 Need for relocation of schools
 Best planning methodology gives maximum return on public
investment by increasing access to facilities in demand
 Appropriate grade levels
 Appropriate school size
 Seating capacity, number of teachers, infrastructure
 Appropriate medium/curriculum
 Ex. Oriya in AP, Madrassas
 Appropriate location for easy & safe access

5. Constraints in Traditional Methodology
 Large unit of planning
 Lack of updated & detailed city/town plans in most cases
 Difficulty in defining habitation/ seamlessly joined
habitations
 Mapping schools in every nook and corner exhausting and
tedious
 Difficulty in factoring a large variety of schools with unique
characteristics

6. Advantages of Geo-mapping
 Accurate
 Real time updation leading to reduced planning time
 No separate survey for distance calculation
 Easy to analyse distribution pattern & large volumes
of data
 Visual representation/ data at a click
 Easy to understand demand aspects
 Easy to locate schools with unclear address

7. India Institute’s School Mapping in Patna
 GIS based
 Covered all 72 wards - lane by lane
 Only 30 man days to map 1293 schools

8. India Institute’s School Mapping in Patna -
Methodology
 No map of Patna – every lane surveyed and map made
 Recorded the route taken by the surveyor
 Allows identification of areas/streets not covered
 Allows measurement of distance between any points
 Voice tagging
 Quick
 Does not require special skills
 Any information can be added to the tag
 Clicking on an icon can give information on school type,
address, level etc
 Plotted on Google Maps

9. India Institute’s School Mapping in Patna -
Analysis
 Categorised schools into 16 categories for in-depth analysis
 Management type
 Government, Aided, Unaided
 Grade Level
 Primary, Upper Primary, Secondary, Higher Secondary
 Fee Level
 Low Cost, Affordable, Higher Cost
 Legal Status
 Recognised, Un-recognised
 Identification of preferred school location in an area by analysing
distribution pattern
 Analysis of private school distribution in the catchment area of
each government school for better understanding of aspiration
and demand

10. THANK YOU
Future educational planning cannot happen without
geo-mapping. The sooner we adopt, the better.