An Integrated Approach to Sustainable Education Planning, Management and Development in Nigeria: Using Geospatial Technologies

Education is one of the most important sectors for a nation’s development. In most developing countries, education development have been immensely lagging due to factors such as poor planning and management practices, and ineffective policies development and implementation among several others. As a consequence, particularly in Nigeria, the education sector began to lose its integrity in terms of quality and productivity since old frameworks for education policies, development and implementation are still in use after they have become long obsolete. To garner an understanding and gain insight into these challenges and to devise possible approaches to propel sustainable education development in Nigeria, this research project was embarked upon using geographic information system technology as the primary tool for scientific investigation. And based on the result from the analysis and existing literatures, a model for sustainable education development was presented. The output of the research project revealed a method of planning, management, and development in education through spatial analysis of education data over time and space. The research also examines the challenges or implications of the spatial pattern of education development in Nigeria and attempt to define sustainable education developments in terms of four major variables – accessibility of education, quality of education, productivity of education and other related factors such as government policies and religious beliefs. It was discovered that there remains a great imbalance and uneven education development across the states of Nigeria. Some states are less privileged academically, while others have high academic potentials.