A Spatial Supply-Demand Imbalance Between Rural Primary and Secondary Schools in Shaanxi Province Based on Road Network Analysis

Abstract

It is of great significance to optimize the spatial matching of basic education facilities in rural areas and promote the equalization of urban and rural basic public services and the overall revitalization of rural areas. Based on the theory of spatial accessibility and spatial balance of supply and demand, this paper constructs the evaluation system of rural basic education facilities and layout rationality. In this study, we took 42 primary and secondary schools and 2089 rural areas with concentrated population in six township areas of Hancheng City as the research subjects. We used ArcGIS network analysis, population coupling model, and other methods, from the administrative scale and rural population concentration area scale for evaluation. The accessibility of basic education facilities and its coupling relationship with the spatial distribution of student population describe the spatial and geographical pattern of basic education facilities in rural areas. The results show that the accessibility of rural administrative scale and the spatial balance of supply and demand of population concentration area scale are associated with great problems, the differences between towns are obvious, and the overall level of the best performing towns is still low. On the scale of population concentration area, the overall coupling degree is too low, the “dislocation” distribution of educational facilities and student population is obvious, and the matching degree of the student population and school in different towns is significantly different, showing a more obvious “core-periphery” spatial structure characteristics centered on the eastern and southeast regions. The terrain characteristics of rural areas in Shaanxi province are prominent, and the accessibility of the road network is particularly significant. Therefore, optimizing the construction of rural roads and optimizing school layout according to local conditions will become an important solution to promote the balanced allocation of basic education resources in Shaanxi province.