The Henan Provincial Department of Education put forward opinions on the layout planning of urban and rural primary and secondary schools during the "14th Five-Year Plan" period on Feb 2, requesting that all regions improve the planning and construction mechanisms of urban and rural primary and secondary schools to ensure that they match the permanent population to solve the problem of "weak rural areas and crowded cities".

All counties (cities) should comprehensively consider factors such as residential population capacity, existing educational resources, the urbanization process and population mobility, and determine the service, number and scale of schools, as well as pay attention to and strengthen the planning and construction of special education schools to meet the needs of school-age disabled children and adolescents.

In terms of urban school construction, new residential areas with a population of more than 5,000 should in principle be equipped with primary schools, and residential areas of more than 10,000 residents should in principle be equipped with junior high schools.

The secondary and elementary schools to be built must be planned, constructed and delivered in keeping with the development of their residential area.

For small-scale residential areas where the construction of supporting schools in the old urban area is insufficient and the standards for supporting schools are not met, the local government will coordinate the construction or expansion of supporting schools to meet local needs.

In principle, the population of newly-built elementary and junior high schools shall not exceed 2,000 students, and that of compulsory education students in nine-year and twelve-year programs shall not exceed 2,500.

In terms of rural school construction, localities can appropriately increase the adjustment of the layout of rural schools, and concentrate on township government locations and central villages with convenient transportation and dense population.

Township junior high schools are dominated by boarding schools. In principle, primary school students in grades 1 to 3 go to nearby schools, and their commute is generally no more than half an hour.

Students in grades 4 to 6 are mainly day students, with guarantees for accommodation, life, transportation and safety. Appropriate boarding is possible under the premise of village primary schools and teaching sites should be retained or set up in places with sparse population, remote location and inconvenient transportation.

All localities should implement policies to allocate public funds to small-scale rural schools accommodating up to 100 students and to increase public funds subsidies to township boarding schools according to the standard of 200 yuan per year per student.