A new study has found rural school students are falling behind city kids, and it puts them at a disadvantage when it comes to higher education.
There are fears this could worsen the already short supply of doctors in rural towns as fewer rural students go to university.
Why waste a beautiful day cooped up inside, when your classroom could have fresh air and sit nestled amongst rolling green hills - like those who attend Bay of Plenty's Ōropi School.
"Rural school settings are fantastic places. It's a great environment for kids to have a lot more freedom and sense of autonomy in their learning," NZ Rural Schools Association's Andrew King said.
And yet, new research has found rural students are not achieving grades on par with their urban counterparts.
"It's not surprising to hear that and I think a lot of that comes down to resourcing and equity of resourcing to support rural schools with the delivery of the curriculum," King said.
The study found that while NCEA level three attainment has gradually risen across New Zealand over the past decade, there is a consistently lower rate for students in rural schools.
It means rural students have greater difficulty in entering medical programmes, like those at Auckland University, and that contributes to a longer-term problem of attracting GPs back to their rural roots.
Dr Kyle Eggleton from Auckland University led the research and works part-time as a general practitioner in Hokianga.
"We've got a real pressing workforce issue in rural medicine," Auckland University Medical and Health Sciences Faculty's Kyle Eggleton said.
"We don't have enough doctors in our local town to sustain the after-hours roster and you're seeing that in many small rural towns - that rural doctors are really hard to find," Eggleton said.
"One of the most important things we can do is to get rural students to enter into medicine."
"It's harder to access all areas of the curriculum you need to, to get those qualifications and grades to get into the likes of medical school or engineering," King said.
In a statement to Newshub, Education Minister Jan Tinetti acknowledged that "Regardless of where you live and go to school all our young people should have the chance to succeed."
She's pinning her hopes on changes to both the curriculum and NCEA assessments that'll be rolled out in the coming years.
"For rural students, this means designing learning and assessment opportunities that work for them," Tinetti said.
Because who knows, our next major medical breakthrough could come from one of these bright young rural minds.
