Evaluation of the provinces in terms of educational development using multi-criteria decision-making techniques

The enjoyment of a variety of factors, including natural, economic, social and political, create or exacerbate regional inequalities. The emphasis on harmonious regional development requires study and understanding of the characteristics of each region according to its position in the regional system . The purpose of this study was to analyze and classify the provinces in terms of their educational sector indices and descriptive-analytic methods was used. The required data and information of the study were collected from the Statistical Yearbook and the results of public Census of Population and Housing of 1390. The data which is based on 19 indicators in the education sector has been analyzed. The data analyses were carried out based on SAW, TOPSIS, and VIKOR models and for fining the weight gain of indices, the Shannon entropy was used and though Copland method the results of three models were combined. And also the Arc GIS 10.1 software was used to analyze and discuss the issue. The results show that there is a significant difference between the levels of development nationwide and different provinces. Provinces can be classified based on three categories: developed, mid-developed and less developed. And province ranking shows that, Tehran ranked first and the last Belongs to Sistan and Baluchistan.