Assessing equal rights in obtaining urban public primary school services with case studies of Hangzhou in China

Abstract

Obtaining equal urban public services is essential to social fairness. This paper presents and assesses the equal distribution of urban public service facilities in China by examining 177 public primary schools in downtown Hangzhou. First, we collect data on the spatial distribution, population access to services, and student enrolments from the case schools. Second, we build spatial and social equity models to assess the rate of present facilities' equity. This paper assesses spatial equity with factors such as school ranking, enrolments per thousand residents, and home-to-school distance by using the index's scoring method. The Lorenz curve and Gini coefficient were used for social equity evaluation, in which household registration, housing, and the number of school-age children per family reflect the education demand features, and the enrolments present the supply-side features. The findings show that the spatial distribution of the public primary schools in Hangzhou varies significantly from the centre to the periphery. In other words, accessibility decreases from the centre to the periphery direction. In terms of social equity, most citizens have access to low-quality education resources, while only a few citizens can enjoy high-quality education. Equal access to public primary schools faced three problems. First, there was insufficient investment by the local government, particularly in compulsory education. Second, there are variations in education investment among different administrative units in a district and historical inertia. For the sake of a fair distribution of public primary school services, it is essential to increase investment in compulsory education, upscale the enrolment of primary and middle schools, and boost teachers' competencies. Furthermore, to improve social equity, faculty exchange programs between non-key schools and top key schools should be launched.