Analysis of Spatial Accessibility for Rural School Redistricting in West China: A Case Study of the Primary Schools in Zhenyuan County, Yunnan Province

School planning is the main role of local education administrations, and is related to providing fairness in education. This paper uses GIS technology to analyze the distribution of rural primary schools in a mountainous county of China. Analyzing population, school distribution, relevant education resource databases, and combined altitude map, allowed us to calculate the spatial accessibility of every administrative village in the county. The main evaluation factors for school distribution are spatial accessibility, fairness, and efficiency. Using a spatial accessibility index, we constructed a Gravity Model and an Improvement Gravity Model to explore the spatial distribution of rural schools. Through our analysis, we found there were differences in regard to education resources, school distribution, and spatial accessibility in Zhenyuan County, where our study was conducted. In some villages, the education resources are inadequate, some villages the distance to school is too far, more than half of the villages were poorly for the accessibility to school. We suggest that when school adjustments are being made, instead of merely considering efficiency alone, fairness should also be taken into account. Providing rural students with a school near their home is the most suitable and beneficial situation for rural families.