many small schools are located within a distance of less than one kilometre of each other pen although geography and the transportation network need to be taken into account this suggests considerable scope to foster mergers of nearby schools to the benefit of quality without putting students access at risk this should be the preferred option where feasible unless the school could be restructured to expand access to preschool and secondary education in canada and portugal see box transporting students to bigger schools is preferred to ensure quality and small schools are limited to remote areas with low enrolment