Analysis of Spatial Accessibility for Rural School Redistricting in West China - Best School Kumbakonam
Best School in Kumbakonam
School planning is the main role of local
education administrations, and is related to providing
fairness in education. This paper uses GIS technology to
analyze the distribution of rural primary schools in a
mountainous county of China. Analyzing population, school
distribution, relevant education resource databases, and
combined altitude map, allowed us to calculate the spatial
accessibility of every administrative village in the county.
The main evaluation factors for school distribution are
spatial accessibility, fairness, and efficiency. Using a spatial
accessibility index, we constructed a Gravity Model and an
Improvement Gravity Model to explore the spatial
distribution of rural schools. Through our analysis, we
found there were differences in regard to education
resources, school distribution, and spatial accessibility in
Zhenyuan County, where our study was conducted. In some
villages, the education resources are inadequate, some
villages the distance to school is too far, more than half of
the villages were poorly for the accessibility to school. We
suggest that when school adjustments are being made,
instead of merely considering efficiency alone, fairness
should also be taken into account. Providing rural students
with a school near their home is the most suitable and
beneficial situation for rural families.
With the advance of urbanization and family planning
policy, some rural student transfer to urban areas and
rural school-age populations have decreased. As a result,
many schools in rural areas have been reduced to just one
teacher or have been closed entirely. Such schools are
mainly distributed irregularly in mountainous areas, with
poor quality teaching, high operating costs, and low
economies.
In order to improve the education quality of such rural
schools, China began a massive of adjustment of rural
school layouts. This movement was executed from 2001
to 2012, and, during this period, the number of rural
schools in China had decreased by 229,400 (52.1%), and
the number of small schools had decreased by 11,100
(60%), meaning every day 63 school and 30 small
schools had closed [1].
Large quantity and small scale problems in rural
schools were solved through rural school consolidation,
and this also brought an improvement in school
economies and education quality. However, this
consolidation also created many problems.
The result of
the school consolidation is that schools are now
concentrated in more populated villages or areas of
counties, and these school are now large with big
classes[2]. People in rural areas live in widely dispersed
settlements, and this concentration of schools is
inconvenient for them, not only in regard to the distance
and, security risks on road (i.e., traffic accidents), but also
because of the economic burden on rural families, which
is an important reason why many students drop out of
school[3][4].
Research on school distribution has mainly been
conducted in the education domain, and the research
method usually involves surveys and interviews, using
simple technology. Research on educational facilities’
spatial distribution, assessments, and planning is sparse.
Employing the Geography Information System (GIS) that
is widely used in business, service, and planning, we want
use ArcGIS to explore the distribution of rural schools
and, establish a geographic spatial database on population
distribution, school distribution, transportation, and
terrain. Using the mountainous counties of western China
for our case study, we assess spatial accessibly and the
problems involved, and then give some advice on how
school adjustment should be conducted in this area.
Through these analyses, we can see that school
distribution is uneven.
z The spatial distribution of education resources is not
balanced, education resources in Zhentai and
Zhedong village are the most scarce, not suited with
the local population.
z For some villages the distance students must travel to
school is too far, the farthest distance from village to
school is 12.07km. In mountain area, people were
living scattered, the actual distance for some student
is longer.
z Gravity Model and Improvement Gravity Model
shows that high accessibility villages always have a
school, and village with poor accessibility have no
school there. The accessibility of more than half of
the villages to school is unsatisfactory.
z GIS technology can visually represent the spatial
distribution and find weak area of education
resources, and can improve education management
efficiency.
The numbers of schools are decreasing, and they are
being centralized in main towns. The cost of education
for rural students is increasing, and the traffic accident
increasing too. Most rural students are required to board
in school, away from their family, which creates an
alienation of affection, a rising dropout rate, and results in
education unfairness. Therefore, in this paper we suggest
that school adjustment should not just consider efficiency,
but also fairness; giving rural students a school that is
close to their home is more suitable for rural families.
For Zhenyuan County school planning, we suggest
that following be considered:
z For villages at the edges of towns, or villages in
mountains or near high mountains, that their schools
should remain open, so that children have short
distances to travel to school .
z If consolidation means that students’ journeys to
school become too long, such as in the case of
196
Wenjiu to Bolie School, and Pinghe to Guihuajia
School, even if the number of students is very small,
local schools should stay open.
z The reasonable distance for home to school is 2-3km;
however, in Zhenyuan County, 47.25% of villages
are over 3km away from their nearest school. This
means that students will feel too tried to study after
they reach to school, and may have to board in
school; however, it is not good for young children to
board in school. Hence, when planning schools the
actually distance and travel conditions should be
considered.
According to Yu and Qin’s research, small schools
benefit rural villages. Small schools can provide more
opportunities for students to interact and participate in
school and, they promote students’ social development,
allowing them to have more confidence, self-respect and
a greater sense of responsibility [15]. When student
numbers are few, teachers can pay attention to every
student. Small schools in rural areas allow students to
study near their homes and reduce the risk of students
dropping out because of expense, and transportation and
safety issues. Hence, we shouldn’t consider small schools
in rural areas as unused, but we should give them more
attention and more help to develop, this is a basic
fundamental for rural education.
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