Rural-Urban Education Gap Widening: Examining the Situation in America and Australia - Essay Sample

Introduction

The gap between rural and urban education is increasing; learners from rural schools face more challenges as compared to those learning urban areas. The attendance is one of the common challenges facing rural education in both the American and Australian education systems. Various strategies have been established to solve this problem; however, the fact remains that the gap between rural and urban education continues to widen (Schafft, 2016). This paper the fore analyses the situation of rural education in America and Australia; it compares the issues concerning rural education and the impact of some of the challenges being faced by students in rural areas.

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Based on the video, the Australian government faces a significant challenge of rural education, the gap between rural and urban education is increasing. Access to quality education and facilities in rural eras is one of the significant challenges in Australia, mathematics, and science education is one of the most challenges facing rural education (Whannell & Tobias 2015). These challenges translate to poor performance and low attendance. On the other hand, America, I face the same challenge; rural education has become a point of concern from the government and the public because most of the children experience many challenges associated with the remoteness of education facilities and the culture within areas. The two countries struggle to solve the impacts of rural challenges facing the education system (Schafft, 2016). Across the two countries, the school learning environment and reading literacy are less conducive to rural areas. Rural education in Australia is, however, is more disadvantageous based on educational outcomes because there are more opportunities to improve in America than in Australia.

Strategies Used to Solve Challenges Facing Rural Education

Recent reports on the analyses of rural education have identified some of the strategies used to improve student's performance in rural areas, these includes:

Promote Information, Communication Technology Education in Rural Areas

This strategy is one of the significant moves to reducing the challenges facing rural education. Through the provision of ICTs facilities and learning programs, performance is likely to improve. Aziz & Rahman 2017 affirm that providing ICT facilities and teaching programs on technology is one of the best strategies for improving performance in rural education.

Implementation of Rural Education Collaboratives (Recs)

RECs strategy is one of the programs that have a positive influence on student's performance in rural areas. Some of the aims of this strategy include resource sharing, preparing students for further learning, providing a holistic and comprehensive approach to rural education and curricula design.

Student-to-Student Connection and Collaboration Strategy

This strategy is meant to provide students with the ability to learn even beyond their classrooms. It helps to enhance emotional ad cognitive learning for students in rural areas. It also serves to improve the authenticity of students to share their ideas, learning facilities, and products.

The third strategy is one of the strategies that have been adopted in our school, student-to-student learning interaction has dramatically helped to improve education in our school and boost attendance and more importantly the performance of the students. The three strategies could be implemented to improve student's performance in rural areas because they are more focused on encouraging students to attend for their stag-dies and achieve their best.

The implementation of these strategies has been useful as many of the students appreciate the program, and more importantly, schools and parents are in support of the strategies. However, there is a challenge when it comes to the availability of ICT facilities in rural areas, and this affects the effectiveness of teaching technology-related subjects. Another problem is class attendance as a physical distance of learners to school is a challenge.

References

Aziz, N., & Rahman, N. A. (2017, July). Use of ICT in an indigenous primary school classroom: A case study of teachers' expectations and experiences. In 2017 International Conference on Research and Innovation in Information Systems (ICRIIS) (pp. 1-4). IEEE.

Schafft, K. A. (2016). Rural education as rural development: Understanding the rural school-community well-being linkage in a 21st-century policy context. Peabody Journal of Education, 91(2), 137-154.

Whannell, R., & Tobias, S. (2015). Improving mathematics and science education in rural Australia: A practice report. Australian and International Journal of Rural Education, 25(2), 91.