Implementation Plan for GIS School Mapping

The RTE Act provides that ‘Every child of the age of 6-14 years shall have a right to free and compulsory education in its neighborhood school till completion of elementary education. The Act also provides that if a school does not exist within an area or distance limit prescribed as the neighborhood, the concerned Government and the local authority shall establish a school in this area within a period of three years. Therefore, all children-girls and boys-children from such disadvantaged groups and economically weaker sections, children with special needs, children involved in child labour and so on, must be in a school within three years time. This provision in the RTE Act is applicable to the SSA goals on the access and universalisation of elementary education.

The State need to arrive at a clear picture of current availability of schools within defined area or limits of neighborhoods. This will require mapping of neighborhoods or habitations and linking them to specific schools. It is possible that a neighborhood may be linked to more than one school. Similarly, a school may be linked to more than one neighborhood. A comprehensive exercise will help identify gaps and areas where new schools need to be opened.

For the above mentioned service of governance, all the states SSA need to create special system to identify and research on facilities of schools available in their states.

Gujarat Council of Elementary Education launched a unique and effective programme of GIS school mapping to achieve the above mentioned objectives of SSA.

Earlier, before use GIS, the School mapping was limited to Taluka/Block level. It was done manually through research. So it had many limitations and did not provide enough information. There were broad level maps showing position of schools, where there is no distance criteria mentioned. All the data were in separate and scattered form. It was not possible to get the actual analysis for further implementations and actions. Moreover, the data were limited that one cannot go for additional findings or information about schools and their neighboring environment.

School GIS Mapping is conceptualized by the MIS team of State Project Office under guidance of State Project Director through technical support of Bhaskaracharya Institute of Space Applications and Geo-Informatics (BISAG).

BISAG provides specialized services and solutions in implementing map-based Geo Spatial Information Systems. It undertakes all services for the entire process of implementing an enterprise level GIS system. These services include GIS database design and development, map creation/updation and finishing, data migration/conversion and format translation, software development and customization, systems integration and technical consulting. It also provides complete GIS based solutions, which bundle hardware, and software with GIS systems development services. It offers full complement of e-governance solutions to address varying GIS and MIS needs of governments and municipal corporations.

Thus BISAG is a State level nodal agency to facilitate the use of spatial and geo-spatial data and technologies for the planning and developmental activities pertaining to Agriculture, Land and Water Resource Management, Wasteland/Watershed Development, Forestry, Disaster Management, Infrastructure and Education.

BISAG and Gujarat Council of Elementary Education (GCEE), SSA, (together have carried out) educational programmes. GIS school mapping is one of its kinds which have been very much effective and successful. SSA Gujarat along with BISAG team strategically planned the project to get the best result to achieve its objectives.

Technology used: Geo-informatics

Team: i) Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA)

ii) Bhaskaracharya Institute for Space Application and Geo-informatics (BISAG)

Steps taken for development:

1. Actual location of each school (Latitude and Longitude) retrieved from the Google Earth application

2. School location place mark in Google earth software by each CRC co. & Block MIS co. at Block level

3. School location place mark done as School DISE code and also place mark nearest famous place

4. Founded Lat/Long integrated in the actual GIS application of BISAG

5. Mapping of schools, CRC, BRC, Cluster Boundary in GIS environment

6. Integration of Geo-Spatial Database with departmental school data

7. Criteria based GIS analysis - category wise (For Primary and Upper Primary school)

8. Identification of habitation not served by present criteria

9. Identification of most suitable location for habitation of proposed school based on the Demography generation and available infrastructure facility

10. GIS based School information system(Web GIS) Data Sources: 1. DISE School Database 2. High Resolution Indian Remote Sensing Satellite Data 3. Revenue boundary, Settlement Location 4. Road and building departmental Data 5. Census data Criteria used:

Distance Based Criteria

Primary School  Upper Primary School 

1 km radius

3 km

Each village should have access within specified distance limit of (km)

Methodology:

Whole concept is about identifying the un-served areas in terms of Elementary Education through scientific process of School Mapping using Geo-Informatics System. SSA has smart by use of the states nodal agency BISAG. Through BISAG, the whole school mapping project has become standardized, transparent, participatory, law cost, interoperable, technologically reachable and easy to access with best results. With the highly user friendly approach It actually goes with the slogan “Sahi ho – Saral ho – Shigra ho – Sasta ho”

Involvement of Human Resources at various level and training imparted for the

System:

SSA Project has established a huge working team as having implementation tenure of a

decade. Project Staff is highly involved at all the levels for implementation of the System.

Involvement

The following staff members are actively participated for successful implementation of the

System:

1. State MIS Team

2. District MIS Team & District Project Coordinators

3. Block MIS Team & BRC Coordinators

4. CRC Coordinators

Training

District and Block MIS Coordinators trained on whole mapping process periodially at State

Project Office with technical support from BISAG. Training imparted mainly on following

points:

How to locate the school using Google Earth Software

Use of KML file with Google Earth application

Mapping the DISE village code with Census village code.

Main features of the system:

a. Mapping of actual 40943 school locations, CRC, BRC, and Cluster Boundary in GIS environment.

b. Integration of Geo-Spatial Database with Departmental School Data. c. Criteria based GIS Analysis

Category wise (For Primary and Upper Primary School)

Facility Wise

Management wise etc. d. Identification of villages not served by present criteria. e. Identification of most suitable village location for proposed school based on the

Demography and available infrastructure facility. f. User search facility of near by school through google maps. g. Creation of buffer of the user's position and list of schools under that buffer. h. Get Distance between any two schools, school and gamtal location and any two points. i. Authenticated person can add new school through latitude-longitude. j. Facilities related to new school can be updated through form. Home Page

GIS Mapping Utility Index

Districtwise Schools Detail

Blockwise School Detail

Search School of Specific Village

Search School of Specific Village

Get distance between two schools by road on google map

Get 0 to 35 Literacy Rate Blocks

Get Tribal Blocks