Revitalizing rural schools: a challenge for Malaysia

Abstract

Schools in rural areas play a significant role in helping a nation educate its people. In reality, however, they often receive less attention from the government in its reform agenda. This is likely due to the fact that the office of education is usually located in urban areas (Theobald, 2005) and the remoteness of rural schools (Mitra, Dangwal, & Thadani, 2008). Nevertheless, this phenomenon (i.e. lack of attention from government), especially in developed countries (e.g. The United States of America and Australia), is no longer a trend (Howley, 2006). Today, the focus of educational reforms has been to revitalize rural schools so that they can be more like their urban counterparts (Freeman & Anderman, 2005) especially in developing countries context.