ON THE CONDITIONS OF SCHOOL IMPROBEMENT EFFECTED BY SCHOOL CONSOLIDATION

日本70%的城市教育委员会都有合并小学或中学的经验，或者希望在不久的将来合并小学或中学。其背景被解释为在大多数情况下学生人数下降。战后学校合并的现象并不能用城市、乡镇或村庄的重组和合并来解释，而学校合并对改善学校教育的积极作用，首先是改善学校的校舍或设施，其次是平衡各城市中小学的规模，最后是缩小学校规模。其次是学生的小组活动，市教育委员会不经常指出对改进教学方法和课程的影响。另一方面，关于学校合并对学校教育本身的负面影响，例如对学生团体的组织，很少有人指出。大多数城市教育委员会似乎认为学校合并是改善学校教育环境。他们认为巩固学校的任务是他们作为决策者的义务。因此，教师在学校合并决策过程中的参与非常有限。教师对利用学校合并改善学校教育缺乏认识，可以认为是教师参与的因素。但即使教师参与能够实现，学校的改善是否真的能够实现，当然也必须进行实证研究。

70% of the city boards of education in Japan have had the experience of having consolidated elementary or middle schools or the expectation of consolidating elementary or middle schools in the near future. The background for it is explained as the decline of pupil population in most cases. The reorganization and consolidation of cities or towns or villages could not clearly explain the phenomina of school consolidation after World War II as researchers in this field have often pointed out.Concerning the positive effects of school consolidation on the improvement of school education, improvement of school building or facilities is the first choice, and balancing of school size among elementary or middle schools in each city, activating group work by pupils comes after it. Effects on the improvement of teaching methods and curriculum are not so often pointed out by the city boards of education. On the other hand, concerning reverse effects of shcool consolidation on school education itself, for example on the organizing of pupil groups are rarely pointed out.Most of the city boards of education seem to consider school consolidation as the improvement of the environment of shcool education. They consider the task of consolidating schools as their own obligation as policy-makers. For that reason, the participation of teachers in the decision-making process of school consolidation is very limited. The lack of conciousness on the part of teachers on the improvement of school education by taking advantage of school consolidation could be considered to be sought in the factor of teacher participation. But even if teacher participation could be realized, whether school improvement could really happen or not must be researched empirically, of course.