PERTANIKA JOURNAL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES

The Malaysian education system continues to face persistent structural challenges in rural and underserved areas, including limited access to educational resources, inadequate infrastructure and uneven technological readiness. While the COVID-19 pandemic intensified these challenges, it also exposed long-standing inequalities that remain relevant in the post-pandemic period. This study examines teachers’ perspectives on education reform in a rural secondary school in Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia, using the Versatile Learning Pathway (VLP) model as an analytical lens to explore the feasibility of blended learning implementation. An exploratory case study design was employed, involving a survey administered to 18 purposively selected teachers. Data was analysed using descriptive statistics and a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) framework to examine institutional readiness, perceived benefits and implementation constraints associated with VLP. The findings indicate that teachers perceive VLP as a potentially viable approach for supporting instructional flexibility and learning access. Although the findings are context-specific and not intended for statistical generalisation, the study provides practitioner-based insights into the complexities of implementing blended learning as part of rural education reform. The results underscore the importance of teacher readiness, institutional support and contextual planning in ensuring the feasibility of reform initiatives in rural school settings. This study contributes to the rural education reform literature by offering an institutional-level feasibility diagnosis of blended learning implementation using a SWOT framework, grounded in teachers’ lived experiences rather than policy-level assumptions.