title: The planning of educational facilities in new towns.
Creators: name: Abdi-Daneshpour, Z.
Publisher: name: University of Liverpool Repository
Year: 2023

description: The aim of this study is to analyse the nature of educational facilities planning processes in new towns; how these processes are influenced by the framework of procedures at central and local government, Development Corporation and church authority levels; to contribute to the understanding of the effects of overall new town development upon the planning and provision of educational facilities and to suggest alternative measures to deal with and avoid the problem situations that were observed in this study. The first step towards achieving these aims involved a review of the statutory, administrative and financial characteristics of the authorities involved in the planning and provision of educational facilities in new towns, including their links and their liabilities towards each other. The second stage of exploration was a comparison of the twenty-one English new towns in terms of their overall population, pupil population, education, housing and socia-economic characteristics, with the underlying aims of, (a) devising a conceptual framework for this study and, (b) selecting appropriate case-studies to permit the study of problems in depth. The three case-studies were selected on the basis of their dissimilarities, against such variables as (i) belonging to a different stage of new town development, (ii) overall population, pupil population and educational system characteristics, (iii) experiencing different planning and management arrangements. The next stage of exploration involved an historical analysis which considered the relations between the educational facilities structure of each case-study in conjunction with the overall development of the new town, in particular its housing and employment structures. The method adopted was the identification and selection of major Decision/Problem areas within~ the. educational facilities structure of each new town followed by an a~ys1s of the causes and consequences of problem situations. It became apparent that in spite of the differences between the three case-studies (the essential basis upon which they were originally selected), they shared some common Decision/Problem areas. These similarities occurred in spite of the different methods that were adopted by the relevant authorities to tackle the problem situations. The analysis of the three case-studies confirmed the conceptual framework adopted in the second stage. It was concluded that the economic situation of a new town has such an impact upon its housing and educational facilities structures, that without a comprehensive approach to these interrelated problems and without a guarantee by the Government about the provision of necessary job opportunities and steady development of the new towns, the kind of problems that have been created in the education systems of these new towns can not be solved. This is because these are not purely educational problems and their resolution goes far beyond educational policies and regulations. The approach advocated in this study is aimed at a proper understanding of educational problems by the authorities involved in educational facilities planning of new towns and the achievement of the recognition of official responsibility for all aspects of new town development by the Government, not just during the development period of new towns, but also in dealing with problems inherent in interrupted development programmes and declining populations. At the same time this study revealed that there is a need for more co-operation between all the involved authorities and that there is a need for some changes in some educational statutes, policies and regulations which have imposed constraints upon a more rational planning process for educational facilities.