Spatiotemporal analysis of the achievement of equitable quality basic education in Gansu Province, Northwest China

Abstract

This paper holds that educational research, at a local scale, is more meaningful than that at a macro-scale. To analyze the achievements of basic education at a local scale in Gansu Province, Northwest China, an index system, and an educational development index (EDI), were designed and implemented. The results show that the distribution of basic education schools is more suitable for meeting the needs of the population distribution compared to the years prior to 2013. Improvement in resource allocation in the province since 2013 has provided better educational conditions. However, educational equality between urban and rural areas has changed differently at provincial, prefectural, and county scales. The EDI scores reveal that most prefectures and counties are at medium-or low-quality levels of equality, with remote mountainous prefectures and counties even falling into the ultra-low-quality category of inequality. Educational inequality, quality of teachers, and deficiencies in educational investments are the major restrictions on basic education development in Gansu Province.