CHANGES OF THE NUMBER OF ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS AND PUPILS IN HIROSHIMA PREFECTURE (1959 - 2010)

Abstract

This paper aims to analyse the changes in pupil numbers and resulting school closures. From 1959 to 1968 the sharp decline in the number of children resulted in the amalgamation and reorganization of schools apace. Between 1969 and 1982 pupil numbers increased and many new schools were established. But after that pupil numbers started to decrease again. As the large scale merging of municipalities took place from 2003 to 2010, many schools shut down. We classified municipalities into 9 categories according to the fluctuation of the number of pupils and schools in them and analysed characteristics of the types.