The French Schools Map in Context.

The article analyzes the role of the school map in the history and modernization of the French education. According to the author, the two observations regarding the history of the French school map are that educational planning has been secondary to economic planning and that the spatial distribution of educational facilities has played an important role in official thinking. He suggests that the purpose of the school map is revealed in two ways: by the absence of democratic influence on its formulation and development and by the fact that it does not produce any radical equalization of educational opportunity.