This paper aims to explain the time and regional feature of elementary school consolidation process, after regulating the relation of transition of the number of schools and consolidation based on the database about the number of pupils of elementary school and established and closed schools in 1948 2010 in Chugoku region. Although the definite number reduction of pupils was observed in city areas, there were comparatively little consolidation of schools until 2010. However, in the mountainous area, the rapid reduction of the number of pupils continued after rapid economic growth, consolidation of elementary schools were not avoided.
This paper aims to explain the changes in pupil numbers and resulting schools closures. From 1963 to 1980 the number of pupils declined drastically and the amalgamation and reorganization of schools proceeded massively. The number of pupils has been falling down since 1983 but there were no major changes in school numbers until 2002. However after that many schools shut down as the large scale merging of municipalities took place. We classified municipalities into 4 categories determined by the changes of school numbers in them and analyzed characteristics of the types.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.