Title:
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School choice, travel patterns and transport arrangements in Northern Ireland : economic/financial, environmental and social perspectives on a complex system
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One of the key governmental concerns reflected in the 1988 Education Reform Act for England and Wales and
the subsequent Education Reform Order (NI) 1989 was to promote enhanced choice of schools for parents.
however consequences relating to the theory and practice of choice for parents involved in making such
decisions had implications for sustainability and transport arrangements which were not taken into consideration.
Post Primary Education in Northern Ireland offers more scope for choice than any other part of the UK and its
segregated and selective system has particular implications for travel patterns. Moreover, the consequences of
current and future arrangements for home to school travel have not been addressed. The aim of this research is
to investigate the financial/economic, environmental and social implications of enhanced school choice and the
likely response to the inevitable reform of the system which will be required. Particular reference is paid to travel
patterns and transport provision.
in order to achieve this aim, key objectives of the research include: gaining greater understanding of the
decision-making process made by parents in relation to school choice in order to determine how they will react to
my potential reform; investigating the implications of current and potential schooling systems for home to school
transport costs; illustrating the extent to which the current system of educational provision in Northern Ireland
undermines issues of equality in relation to admissions criteria; developing a range of tools in order to inform
policy 'makers on future school travel patterns in response to an ongoing programme of reforms in education 'and
demographic change.
the research is informed by an in-depth discrete choice analysis, based on household surveys that encompass
school choice and travel patterns, attitudinal questions and stated preference experiments. Geographical
information Systems (GIS) analysis is employed to highlight the spatial dimension of the survey data.
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