Merged or Unmerged School? School Preferences in the Context of School Mapping Restructure in Rural China.

Although the school mapping restructure (SMR) program in rural China mainly aims to improve the efficiency of education, this paper aims to show that the principle of educational equity should be given more attention, as evidence suggests that some children lose the opportunity to learn at a local village and rural families have different preferences regarding merged and unmerged schools. The study on which this paper is based aims to understand the family school choice preferences under SMR, through a combination of questionnaires, interviews, and document analysis. Participating in the study were 10,000 parents whose children were in merged and unmerged primary schools (a total of 986 schools), from 178 towns in 38 counties of six provinces in mid-western China. Data were collected mainly by questionnaires and analyzed by a binary logistic regression model as a tool to estimate school preference probabilities. The study finds that in the context of SMR, several related factors impact the willingness of families to choose certain schools for their children. Although many merged schools have better facilities and more qualified teachers, a number of families still prefer unmerged schools for their children due to shorter commuting distances and smaller school sizes, factors which offer improved school accessibility. This study also reveals that other related factors including parents' education, economic condition, etc., are strong influencers of family schooling preferences. Based on the results, the policy implications are that integration of both points of efficiency and equity of education when enacting SMR should be considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]