Victorian Registration and Qualifications Authority to follow up on a range of serious complaints at the school
A Melbourne-based Chinese Language School which receives about $1m in taxpayer funding per year will face a probe following a years-long campaign.
Education
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One of Victoria’s biggest taxpayer funded Chinese language schools is facing yet another official probe into its operations.
The Xin Jin Shan Chinese Language and Culture School will have to provide evidence that its operators meet legal requirements covering finances, physical environment and staff.
Education Minister Ben Carroll has asked the state school regulator, the Victorian Registration and Qualifications Authority, to follow up on a range of serious complaints about the multi-campus school’s operations.
The school receives nearly $1m in taxpayer funding each year and teaches nearly 3000 students a week at its Mount Waverley campus.
A union leader at the school said the new probe was a “breakthrough after so many years of our attempts to appeal to various government agencies”.
She has been battling to get proper accountability of the school’s payment of staff, use of the Mount Waverley Secondary School campus, use of the school to grant visas to foreign workers, appointment of committee members without due procedure and mismanagement of charity funds.
The school is also facing federal court action over the underpayment of four staff members.
The Fair Work Ombudsman has launched legal action to recoup $40,000 from the Western Chinese Language School, which is part of the broader entity.
The ombudsman’s action includes the school, which offers VCE LOTE Chinese subjects, and its former council chairperson, Baoquan Chen.
The school and Mr Chen are alleged to have failed to comply with a notice to calculate and pay back worker entitlements for weekend shifts and annual leave.
As a result, the school faces a penalty of up to $33,300 and Mr Chen faces a penalty of up to $6,660 for the payments from 2016 and 2021.
The Xin Jin Shan school was audited by the Department of Education in 2020, uncovering financial irregularities.
These included “an unusual increase in tuition fee amounts” over three years and a lack of governance and financial policies.
The school and the state government have been contacted for comment.
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