ON THE CONDITIONS OF SCHOOL IMPROBEMENT EFFECTED BY SCHOOL CONSOLIDATION

日本70%的市教育委员会有过合并小学或中学的经验，或期望在不久的将来合并小学或中学。其背景被解释为大多数情况下小学生人数的下降。城市或城镇或乡村的重组和合并并不能很好地解释二战后的学校合并现象，这一领域的研究人员经常指出，考虑到学校合并对改善学校教育的积极作用，改善学校设施或设施是首选，平衡每个城市中小学的学校规模，其次是由学生开展小组工作。城市教育委员会并不经常指出改进教学方法和课程的效果。另一方面，关于学校合并对学校教育本身的负面影响，例如对学生群体的组织，很少有人指出。大多数城市教育委员会似乎将学校合并视为改善学校教育环境。他们认为巩固学校的任务是他们作为政策制定者的义务。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来改善学校教育缺乏意识，这可以认为是教师参与的因素。但是，即使教师参与可以实现，学校的改善是否真的能够发生，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.