Indian Journal of Economics and Development, June 2019, Vol 7 (6) ISSN (online): 2320-9836 ISSN (Print): 2320-9828 Accessibility to rural primary schools: a case study ofthe District North 24 Parganas, West Bengal, India Department of Economics, 1 Sarojini Naidu College For Women, 30, Jessore Road,Kolkata-700028,India 2 University of Calcutta, 56A, BT Road, Kolkata-700050, India munkolsweta@gmail.com, sudakshinagupta@yahoo.co.in Abstract 1. Introduction Access is an important contributor to the development of educational sector in the rural areas. The role of transport is to facilitate access to goods, services and facilities by improving mobility of the people. Improvement of the transport sector leads to sustainable development. Adequate and efficient road infrastructure is crucial and a pre-requisite for the provision of accessibility and mobility [1]. Social infrastructure like education and health are essential for economic development. Accessibility and mobility are provided to such infrastructure through rural road investment. Rural access can be defined as the ability and the level of difficulty, of rural people to use, reach or obtain the necessary facilities, goods and services. It can be improved through the provision of rural infrastructure and by improving rural transport. The process of improving rural access is by identification of real access needs and the transport patterns of the rural people. Traditional cost- benefit analysis of the improvement of the road have focussed on measurable output like road length, number of beneficiaries, reduced travel time, transportation costs and environmental effects [2]. Rural access can be determined by a number of factors. They can be enumerated as follows: Physical access relates to distances and travel. It can be improved by the provision of physical infrastructure. A lack of physical access deprives people of the opportunities to improve and sustain their living. Sweta Mondal, Dr. Sudakshina Gupta Objectives: Access to primary education determines the extent of mobility. Here, we assess the accessibility of children to rural primary schools through the three parameters such as travel time, travel cost and quality of schools. Methods/Statistical analysis:The new approach to local-level planning is known as Integrated Rural Accessibility Planning (IRAP). The feature of local level planning is the development of a quantification technique by which accessibility to primary schools would be determined. It would be expressed in form of indices.Here household is taken as the unit of analysis. The three parameters taken are travel time, travel cost and quality of service, represented by Accessibility Index. Findings: Results show that with the help of an Accessibility Index, a village with a higher score has more difficulties in accessing primary schools and a village with a lower score has fewer difficulties. These are determined by the importance put on accessibility to primary schools based on travel time, travel cost and quality highlighting no of students, teachers, classroom and number of classes. Weights are assigned accordingly. The village Berunanpukuria would be more concerned over the problems caused due to more travel time factor, lack of quality factor depending on the importance put on them. On the other hand, the village Fateabad Narayanpur would be less concerned with the problems because they have assigned lower importance to the factors of accessibility as quality factors have catered the need for accessibility.We need to identify the alternative projects and then select the best solution within the available budget, in consultation with the villagers. Thus, it is necessary to examine the impact of the facility or infrastructure on the nearby villages. Application/Improvements: Accessibility Index is a useful parameter to decide the provision of infrastructure, services and its impact. The accessibility indices (AI) help to compare the villages with regard to accessibility to primary schools. Keywords:Education, access, mobility, primary schools, weights