Analysis of spatial distribution and access to schools in district 20th of Tehran ‎municipality

In urban planning, proper distribution of facilities and educational services is important, because only if there is an equity in the distribution of services and land uses, it will be possible for all residents to take advantage from them. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the spatial distribution of schools and ‎the accessibility of households to public education schools in 20th district of ‎Tehran.‎ The research method was descriptive-analytical based on the data and information provided by the education departments. In order to analyzing the spatial distribution of ‎schools we used spatial analysis models in GIS including the nearest neighboring index; ‎multi-spatial analysis and Moran index. Buffer technique has been used to analyze ‎access to public education schools.  Findings showed that all the schools at different levels from primary, secondary, to vocational   schools had a cluster pattern of spatial distribution.  The distribution of public education schools (primary and first period of secondary schools) had a more clustered pattern compared to the specialized schools. 29.9% of the area was not inside the access area of boys' elementary schools. The out of access area of girls' elementary schools,  first period boys' high schools and the  girls' ones were 6,27, 13/7 and 3/7 percent respectively. While some parts of the study region were outside of schools access areas, In some other parts,  5 access areas of elementary schools and 7 access area of first period high schools were overlaid. This also reflects the unequal spatial distribution of schools in the region.