Strategies and measures for preserving rural and increasing suburban primary schools in the district of České Budějovice, Czechia

Many rural primary schools in Czechia are currently struggling with low numbers of pupils. On the other hand, in near hinterlands of Czech cities there are insufficient numbers and capacities of primary schools due to the ongoing residential suburbanisation related to the great increase in the numbers of schoolchildren there. The objective of the article is the creation of general strategies and measures for preserving rural primary schools and increasing suburban primary schools, also through the optimization of spatial arrangement of these schools and school catchment regions. Strategies and measures are tested in the rural and suburban hinterland of city of České Budějovice (South Bohemia) after monitoring and comparing of the territorial distribution of primary schools, their catchment regions, the number of pupils in the classrooms of schools, and the schoolchildren populations in the settlements. In the suburban hinterland, the creation of new incomplete lower primary schools and the transformation of incomplete lower primary schools into complete (lower and upper) primary schools were planned. In the rural hinterland, the expansion of the catchment regions of rural/small town complete primary schools is assumed, as well as the enlargement of single-classroom rural incomplete lower schools by other classrooms.