RURAL SCHOOLS AS MULTIFUNCTIONAL CENTRES: ALTERNATIVE FOR SCHOOL SURVIVAL AND FLOURISHING COMMUNITIES

• Authors: Ilze Koroleva , Ieva Karklina , Aleksandrs Aleksandrovs
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

In the context of school network optimizing, the fate of small rural schools in Latvia has been a topical issue for politicians at the national and local level for almost a decade. As one of the main reasons talking about the depopulation of rural areas and the reduction in the number of students on formal education programs, that each new school year begins with news about the closure of several rural schools. At the same time, documents of political planning, scientific publications and research emphasize the special role of rural schools in further development, implementing state and local government obligations to provide residents with access to vital services, including education, to make attractive rural communities existence and to discover opportunities for their sustainable development. In recent decades theoretical approaches has also emphasized the role of local communities and their participation in rural development processes (the endogenous development model), while also taking into account the specific regional needs (the neo-endogenous model). The actions of various agents involved in the education system and the activity of rural communities aimed at preserving schools and the creation of multifunctional centres as one of a schools survival strategies are analysed in this article, based on the empirical data obtained in the framework of the international comparative project “Rural depopulation and the governance of education: comparative study of Latvia and Norway”: a survey of Latvian municipality education field specialists (n = 103) and quantitative survey data and the study of specific characteristic cases of representatives of small rural school administration (N = 200). The results of local governments and school administrations survey point to a direct link between the level of development of the territory (for analysis purpose all state municipalities have been grouped according to territorial development index (TDI)) and the accessibility of education, as well as the degree of activity of education agents and local communities in decision-making processes. Closure of small schools during the last 5 years most often affected economically less developed, poor municipalities. Analysis of empirical evidence suggests that the smaller the economic and social resource of municipality is ñ the smaller is the social capital of its inhabitants. In municipalities with the lowest TDI, there is comparatively weak activity of local population, a desire to take part in decision-making in support against the closure of schools. In this situation, every local government, administration/teachers of schools, as well as local residents, are forced to take responsibility for finding solutions that are based not only on economic calculations or received as direct instructions from higher institutions. Many municipalities together with schools administration search and find solutions due to expansion of functions of schools, cooperation with other municipalities and in other ways. The study is conducted with the support of funding from the EEA / Norwegian Financial Mechanism 2009-2014 under Project Contract no. NFI/R/2014/014.

Keywords

EN

rural schools; regional development; education system; decision-making

• Publisher: Daugavpils University, Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences
• Journal: Sociālo Zinātņu Vēstnesis
• Year: 2017
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 7-29

Contributors

author

Ilze Koroleva

author

Ieva Karklina

author

Aleksandrs Aleksandrovs

Identifiers

ISSN

1691-1881