Fewer, better pathways for all? Intersectional impacts of rural school consolidation in China’s minority regions

•Primary school consolidation is a policy response to changing demographics in middle income countries with large rural populations.•We analyze the effects of consolidation on educational attainment and language ability among rural minority populations in China.•After closure, better resourced and farther away schools offer less minority language instruction and have more Han teachers.•Minority youth were negatively affected by closure, in terms of both educational attainment and written Mandarin facility.•Penalties were heavier for girls from poorer villages and for boys from more ethnically segregated minority villages.