Abstract

Education is an important tool that governments often use to attain national development. Therefore, it behoves on governments to provide adequate resources and facilities needed in education sector. Hence, spatial pattern of these facilities and resources is important to socio-economic development of any society and should not be ignored. In view of this, this study focused on examining the spatial pattern of public education resources in Adamawa State, Nigeria with the aim of enhancing access to affordable education and community development in the state. Secondary data on the quantity and locations of public education resources, personnel and rate of students’ enrolment in public schools during 2016/2017 academic session were collected from education Departments of all the Local Government Area (LGAs) in Adamawa state, as well as Adamawa State Education Ministry and Boards. Both Simple descriptive and inferential statistics were used for data analyses. The result from the study revealed uneven spatial pattern of public education resources among the 21 LGAs in the State. The implications of the observed spatial pattern include the fact that some communities, LGAs and/or regions in the state are more advantaged educationally than others and public education resources are more accessible in the advantaged LGAs than in the disadvantaged LGAs. Hence, to increase accessibility rate of Adamawa State residents to public education resources and services, the need to recruit and redistribute teachers, among other resources, based on the needs of different communities and/or LGAs were recommended.

Key Words: Spatial pattern, Public education facilities, Socio-economic development, Location Quotients