Rural Primary School Spatial Distribution In The County Area

The balanced development of education is the current focus of present education development.Schools are the carrier of educational activities,and their layout is closely related with the allocation of educational resources.The rational planning of school layout plays a significant role in realizing the balanced development of compulsory education and achieving educational equity.At present,China has experienced school layout adjustments of the rural areas.The main criteria adopted when schools are consolidated are the number of population and the size of schools.The indicators are single,which leads to a series of negative impacts such as long distances and difficulties for students to go to school,more burdens posed on peasants,etc.In 2012,the government halted and standardized rural school layout adjustment policies,and required the scientific formulation of rural compulsory education school layout plans,and how to scientifically design the layout of the school became an important issue.Using county as research scale,this study investigates the spatial distribution of primary schools in compulsory education,constructs school layout plan and design scheme,and utilizes GIS to analyze the rationality of the county school spatial layout.Based on literature review,we applied the theories of geography,education and sociology that relate to school layout to summarized the factors that should be considered in the layout and location of schools,which included the natural geographical conditions(topography,climate,geology and transportation)and human geography conditions(population,economy,culture and policy).Based on these factors,we constructed different school layout plans on different geographical conditions,including school layout in flat and mountain area,and established a reasonable layout evaluation index system of these schools,providing index and standard for the evaluation and calculation method,and analyze the principle of school layout in county.Subsequently,taking the primary school of Y County in Yunnan Province as an example,we conducted an empirical study.By adopting field survey and interview method,combined with GIS spatial analysis and planning techniques,the database of topography,population and school was constructed,and the temporal evolution and spatial distribution characteristics of the sample county’s rural school layout are analyzed.The reasonable layout evaluation index system of mountain area was used to determine the rationality of school layout,and the reasons were analyzed.The study found that the county has contracted significantly in recent years.Generally speaking,the supply of educational resources was less than the demand.Although the school layout in some areas has taken geographical factors into consideration,the merger and removal of schools is still continuing and the school layout tends to be concentrated.After calculation of the evaluation index system of school layout rationality,it was discovered that the layout of schools in each town of Y county has categorized into three types.In the calculation of the evaluation index system,the indicators of outstanding contribution were the coordination of population and school,natural geography and traffic convenience index.There are three reasons for this result: first,the number of school-age children in rural areas is decreasing.Second,there is a lack of educational input and the rural education is of low quality.Third,it has a bearing on the policy orientation of education administration.This spatial layout brought about consequences of the centralization of schools to the villages and towns,the crowding of central schools,the growing distance from students’ s home to school,and the rising burden of peasants.Finally,this study put forward the optimization design proposal and layout guarantee measures of rural schools in Y County.In order to achieve the goal of ensuring that school layout satisfies the requirements of the public for educational resources and students are able to enter schools nearby,we should increase the education investment,raise the supply of educational resources in rural schools,and develop rural small schools,so that,the layout of the school can meet the needs of people for educational resources and facilitate the education equity.