189children go to nearest school, keeping the teaching points in the areas of incon-
venient places, to avoid causing absenteeism and taking too much efforts to go to
school”. In 2009, MoE issued “The Guiding Opinions on Strengthening School
Management and Regulating School Running Behavior” reinforcing the above
sprit and restating the school location adjustment should avoid arbitrary cuts and
too rapid implementation. School mergers need not to be overdone, and should
keep the balance between equity and efficiency.
In 2010 MoE issued “The Opinions of Implementing Scientific Development
View and Further Promoting Balanced Development of Compulsory Education”.
This further requires that in the areas of disadvantaged natural conditions the
teaching points should not be closed or merged to other schools. When closing
or merge a school, the decision making process must hear local people’s views
to avoid causing new conflict. In 2012 the State Council issued “Opinions on
Regulating School Layout Adjustment in Rural Compulsory Education” points out
the problem that in some places, the programming was not planned properly and
procedures were not regulated, and checks and balances were lacking. It reveals
that states admitted mistakes in implementation. This latest policy shift reflects
more realistic and human oriented and ethnical value.
8.7.2 Ways Forward
Based on the analysis of the above issues, our research supports the view that
the following aspects should be dealt with well in the process of school location
adjustment and development of boarding schools in rural areas:
First, school location re-planning must use the principle of going to the near-
est school. This is the basic principle of compulsory education policy for every
country in the world. Home-school distance is an important factor for parents to
choose school. School location policy should take into account the transport cost
to the parents. The parents consider safety as the most important factor in their
children’s schooling. Protecting children’s basic right and interest for going to a
nearby school is one of the items of the Act of Compulsory Education. In the pro-
cess of school planning, local governments and educational administrators should
really care for children’s interests and make a balance between the school location,
commuting methods and school bus operation. In the areas where transportation
is inconvenient, it is likely to be necessary to restore and maintain some teaching
points and some special preferential arrangements to send qualified teachers and
ensure the basic school conditions and teaching quality. It is important to avoid
school absence, dropout, overage, oversize of and classes because of too many
mergers.
Second, it is important to establish feasible and sustainable investment mech-
anisms and clarifying financial responsibilities for boarding school building and
strengthening the management of boarding schools around the basic needs of stu-
dents such as teaching, learning, eating, living, transport and medical care. The