As hope fades for Malek Fahd Islamic School, board meets government to decide fate
HOPE is fading that Australia’s largest Islamic School can survive, with the risk thousands of students, including those studying the HSC, will have to find another school.
The Express
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HOPE is fading that Australia’s largest Islamic School can survive, with the risk thousands of students, including those studying the HSC, will have to find another school.
Members of Malek Fahd Islamic School board are due to meet federal education department officials this afternoon to determine if there is any way the school can remain open in Term 3.
The Greenacre school, which caters for 2400 primary and high school students and has campuses in Hoxton Park and Beaumont Hills, has been struggling to stay afloat since the Federal Government refused to provide $19 million in funding last year.
The Government suspended the money following an audit which found the school’s then board, run by the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils, was not spending all of the money on its students.
Since then, the school has cut its ties to AFIC and installed a new board, led by chairman Dr John Bennett.
Funding resumed this year with the school receiving monthly payments of $1.6 million in January, February and March, but money was halted in April due to concerns about rent being paid to AFIC.
Malek Fahd is appealing to the Federal Court over the $19 million and has also taken AFIC to court in a dispute over $45 million.
The NSW Education Department advised the school it was operating for profit in 2014 and 2015 and it had recommended funding be suspended. An investigation was under way but the school continued to receive monthly payments.
A Guildford mother, who has a 15-year-old son at the school, but did not want to be named, said she had little hope that the school could remain open. “I’m very anxious actually because we haven’t been told too much. I feel the school hasn’t told us the full story,’’ she said. “I feel the Commonwealth is making an example out of the school. The kids are suffering, the teachers are suffering, the parents are suffering.”
Dr Bennett, who spoke to the The Express ahead of Monday’s meeting, said parents had been kept fully informed and he was more positive that a resolution would be found than he was a week earlier.
“We believe we’re compliant but we’ve still got to convince the Commonwealth,” he said. “The State Government is showing very positive signs.”
A NSW Education Department spokesman said they were well prepared should Malek Fahd students need places in the public system.
If the school closed, the department would open a contact centre for parents within 24 hours to help them with enrolling their children in a public school. Nearby schools could accommodate students.
“I understand this is a difficult time and our focus is with the students, families and teachers working to minimise the disruption to the school community,” said Federal Education Minister Simon Birmingham.
A federal education department spokesman said the decision to delay funding would remain in place until the school could demonstrate compliance.
Lakemba state Labor MP and Opposition education spokesman Jihad Dib said the HSC students could not be accommodated at public schools due to the format of their studies, with trial exams set to take place in Term 3.
He hoped the federal and state governments could work with Malek Fahd Islamic School so they could remain open.
“Can they look these children in the eye and tell them the school’s going to close through no fault of their own?” Mr Dib said.
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