Rural elementary school: variability of types in a diverse countryside

Kučerová, Silvie R.; Meyer, Petr; Kučera, Zdeněk; Rybová, Kristýna; Šmíd, Jan

doi:10.37040/geografie2022127010075

Geografie > Archive > 2022, Vol. 127 > Issue 1 > Rural elementary school: variability of…

Geografie 2022, 127, 75-98

https://doi.org/10.37040/geografie2022127010075

Rural elementary school: variability of types in a diverse countryside

Silvie R. Kučerová¹

, Petr Meyer^1,2

, Zdeněk Kučera²

, Kristýna Rybová¹

, Jan Šmíd³

¹J.E. Purkyně University in Ústí nad Labem, Faculty of Science, Department of Geography, Ústí nad Labem, Czechia
²Charles University, Faculty of Science, Department of Social Geography and Regional Development, Prague, Czechia
³J.E. Purkyně University in Ústí nad Labem, Faculty of Arts, Department of Philosophy and Humanities, Ústí nad Labem, Czechia

Received September 2021
Accepted January 2022

The article aims to discuss conditions of spatial organization of elementary schools in the Czech countryside and to validate whether there is any relation between the different types of rural schools and the diverse types of rural areas. Usually, rural schools are perceived in contrast to urban schools as a homogenous group of institutions with common characteristics – despite their diversity. The article compares the typology of municipalities according to data about elementary schools with the typology of municipalities according to its societal and cultural characteristics. Based on three indicators describing main characteristics of the school network – the number of elementary schools in a municipality, their average utilization of the maximum reported capacity, the average extent of area serviced by the school – eleven types of municipalities were identified. Statistically significant connections were shown between the two typologies. Rural schools thus should not be assessed as internally homogenous group of institutions with broadly common characteristics. This is because problems that rural schools face during their existence reflect wider societal, cultural, and economic conditions of areas in which they are located.