Spatial Pattern and Fairness Measurement of Educational Resources in Primary and Middle Schools: A Case Study of Chengdu–Chongqing Economic Circle

Abstract

China’s education has developed rapidly in recent years, but the issue of educational equality still exists. Currently, there are few studies on educational resources, and their spatial pattern and fairness remain unclear. Thus, this study selected the point of interest data and spatial analysis methods to depict the spatial pattern of educational resources (containing the number of teachers, students, facilities, etc.). Then, we evaluated the equity of educational resources (including the number of schools and school teachers) in terms of geographic and population distribution by combining statistical yearbook data with two indices (the index of dissimilarity and agglomeration degree) to promote healthy urban development. The results show the following. (1) Educational resources have a multicenter spatial structure of “dual cores and multiple sub-centers”. The Moran index reflects a weak positive spatial correlation between educational resources. (2) The index of dissimilarity is between 0.02 and 0.21, which shows that the allocation of resources is relatively balanced. Regarding internal units, obvious differences exist in the agglomeration degree and equilibrium of educational resources.