Al-Faisal College Auburn’s $500 cash for HSC marks scheme
The Federal Education Minister says he will ban schools from giving students cash for high HSC marks after a Western Sydney school handed out $100,000.
NSW
Don't miss out on the headlines from NSW. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Federal Education Minister Dan Tehan said he wants to ban schools from using taxpayer funds to give students cash incentives to boost their academic performance.
His pledge to ban tax dollars being given back to students who do well comes after The Daily Telegraph revealed one of Sydney’s biggest Islamic schools gives its students $500 for every HSC subject they do well in.
Auburn’s Al-Faisal College gave 212 high achieving students a cheque for $500 for each subject they scored more than 90 per cent last year following the release of their HSC results.
There is no evidence the money comes from government subsidies.
The unconventional policy which is estimated to have cost the school more than $100,000 in 2019 has the support of parents and students because it teaches them values of diligence and hard work.
The cash for marks scheme has also seen the low-fee Islamic school fly up HSC league tables, jumping from a rank of 54th in the state in 2017 to 23rd just last year.
The College would not say where the money came from to fund the cash-for-marks scheme, but the school raised about $5 million a year in parent fees in 2018, according to MySchool data.
But Mr Tehan said he would move to formally legislate against the practice if it used taxpayer dollars.
“The Government cannot control how a school spends money that it raises via parents’ fees or fundraising, however Commonwealth Government school funding should not be spent on cash incentives for students,” he said.
“Taxpayers expect school funding from the Commonwealth to be used to meet the educational needs of all students.
“This is why the Federal Government will introduce a legislative requirement that would explicitly prohibit schools from using Commonwealth recurrent funding to provide cash payments to students.”
The school was founded just 22 years ago, charges only $2760 a year in school fees, and beat high fee private schools including Ascham, Shore Grammar and Cranbrook in the HSC rankings last year.
“This year there were 212 distinguished achievers and as a result each student was presented with a cheque of $500 for every subject where they scored an ATAR of 90 or above,” the school said on its website last year.
Al-Faisal College managing director Mr Shafiq Abdullah Khan did not say when the cash for marks scheme was introduced at the school, but told The Daily Telegraph parents supported the incentive program.
“The aim is to show students the importance of diligence and hard work in achieving goals in life,” he said.
“This incentive program is supported by parents and the school community.”
Graduate Haiwad Rashtia received more than $3000 in prizes from Al Faisal last year but said the money was just a nice reward but did not motivate him to study.
“It was our own individual attainment of knowledge that we were pursuing – not some monetary reward,” he said.
“The cash was given to us after our exams only as a treat to reward the students for almost two years of continuous dedication and commitment.
He is now studying medicine at the University of Sydney and said he still had his HSC windfall sitting in his bank account.
“I received the cash and actually have not used it yet — (I am) saving it to use at a later time.”
Centre for Independent Studies education expert Glen Fahey applauded the school for setting high expectations — but said the program could be tweaked.
“It would be better if there were financial rewards for high-performing teachers and schools,” he said.
HSC expert Australian Tutoring Association president Mohan Dhall however expressed concern about what happened when students at the school did not achieve good results.
“At some point they won’t continue to climb, what happens then? Do students get punished? Is a cohort categorised as dumber?,” he said.
“We want students to learn to learn, not only be focused on results.”
A NESA spokeswoman said there was nothing illegal with paying the children to do extra study.
“There are no NESA requirements that prevent this practice,” she said.
