according to these data the teacher shortage index is times higher in rural areas and the index of quality of educational resources is times worse in rural areas compared to urban areas oecd b also according to pisa data the index of sciencespecific resources resources for science such as laboratories and materials for science activities is significantly lower for students in rural areas than students in urban areas oecd b when looking at time of instruction devoted to different subject areas the main difference is in time spent in regular school lessons in science minutes in rural areas in contrast with minutes in urban areas oecd b in order to continue into upper secondary school the majority of rural students need to change schools