The presence or the absence of schools: what impact for rural communities in Hungary and Romania?

Abstract

In rural communities, a school can be defined as an ‘axis mundi’. Besides providing basic education, the school represents an important cultural and social pivot. The aim of the study was to identify the links between the characteristics of rural areas in Hungary and Romania (population characteristics, employment and welfare characteristics, housing and infrastructure characteristics) and the school closure phenomenon. Secondary data were analyzed in order to describe the situation of each country. The preliminary results revealed problems related to the decrease of schools’ number, due to the unfavorable demographical situation and to the consolidation process. Despite the ambiguous findings, it is possible to say that rural communities with schools have a higher level of welfare. Even though in both countries school closures had a negative impact on the community, it is not implied that in those communities the worst living conditions were recorded. A limitation of the current study was the lack of the same set of variables for the two countries, which made difficult the comparison between them. Further research is needed in order to find out new correlations and interrelations and to prove them as statistically significant.