Geographical accessibility to upper secondary education: an Italian regional case study

In this paper, a spatial analysis is performed to measure students' access to the upper secondary education system. Based on the definition of quantitative indicators, the adopted approach is applied to an Italian regional case by exploiting the capabilities of a GIS software and using census tracts' level data. The obtained results highlight geographical patterns of inequalities in access among students and shed light on the least served areas. Further analysis shows that accessibility reflects the degree of urbanization within the study region and that geographical distances are actual barriers to rural students since they are not compensated for by either economic status or the availability of digital infrastructures. The study offers empirical grounds to inform the decision-making process toward equity-in-access oriented interventions. Longer-term actions, as the activation of new schools (network expansion), the activation of new programs (service expansion) or the redistribution of their supply among the current network (network reorganization), as well as mid-term ones, like offering economic support for students' mobility, or reinforcing digital connectivity, emerge as relevant to mitigate social exclusion.