Survey on School Usage by Local Residents in Rural Areas

Case Study of Oroshi-gakuen's School Area in Mihama-cho, Mie-prefecture

Abstract

This research is about understanding schools’ roles for maintaining communities in rural areas with low birth and high aging population rates. The survey is exploring the involvement of local residents into school’s management and understanding school facility usage as community base. Despite the inclusion of community spaces into school planning, many residents are reserved about using school for their daily activities, as they thought that school must be a place reserved only for education. On the other hand, even if many residents are not so active about using school facilities except festivals, they accept to be involved into school management and are attached to the school as part of their community. It is hard to conclude that schools can be considered as community base, but they plays a role in maintaining residents into one community. Further survey is needed to define the role of schools in community establishment and continued existence.