Educational services in Egyptian cities are characterized by uneven level of service, where the
disparity in social, economic and cultural aspects of population has contributed to service
multiplicity and diversity levels to meet the population requirements. This has led to the spread of
different spontaneous types of Elementary Schools in residential neighborhoods within the city, and
without any planned consideration of the geographical distribution to fulfill the needs of
neighbourhood populations. Specific types of Educational services are found in certain
neighbourhoods, and not all. Using alternative types of transportation has encouraged the avoidance
to choose closest schools to housing, and to focus on the appropriate level of service. In light of
increasing diversity of primary schools, significance of this study is to reveal the requirements of
population by extrapolating the current status of those schools, which could contribute to
developing planning criteria for the Egyptian city.
The methodology adopted in this paper is based on the assessment of population requirements, and
the movement of pupils to Elementary Schools in Assiut City. Analysis of the current state of
residential neighborhoods and the characteristics of available primary schools in each of them,
besides the analysis of walking distances as an indicator of pupils movement to and from schools
have been crucial to the adopted methodological approach. The research has used extrapolation
methods based on a small sample of population from different neighborhoods as an indicator of
population opinion about available Elementary Schools in the corresponding housing communities,
and the movement of their children to schools.
The paper is aimed at arriving to specific criteria which can be used to optimize the movement of
pupils to and from Elementary Schools in residential neighborhoods in Assiut City. Socio-economic
levels for residential neighborhoods and the social structure of its population, has been taken into
account throughout the analysis. Pupils' movements to the different types of schools have been
mapped in field-work study and questionnaire design, thus allowing the consideration of both social
structures and location of schools relative to neighborhoods to be taken as well.
The paper is concluded by defining a set of standards and controls that could express the nature of
the actual movement of pupils to and from schools. Those represent the indicators that can be
utilized - as well - to evaluate the current status of Elementary Schools distribution in Assiut City.