Principal slams ‘highly defamatory falsehoods’ in Year 12 sample assessment
Jewish groups have roundly condemned a Year 12 sample assessment that derided Israel.
Jewish groups have roundly condemned a Year 12 sample assessment that claimed Israel persecuted Arab families and demolished their homes because of their Muslim faith, demanding an investigation into how the “libellous” statement made its way into a school resource.
The Australian Council for Health, Physical Education and Recreation, which published the practice assessment task designed for Health and Human Development students, agreed to recall it following a complaint from prominent Jewish school Mount Scopus Memorial College.
However the school’s principal Rabbi James Kennard said it was not good enough.
In a strongly worded email to ACHPER chief executive Hilary Shelton, Rabbi Kennard said his concern was not that the claims were “offensive”, rather they were “blatant and highly defamatory falsehoods”.
As The Australian reported on Tuesday, the assessment paper, part of the council’s 2019 package of school-assessed coursework tasks, known as SACs, contained questions and answers, including one asking students to demonstrate how religious discrimination affects mental health and wellbeing.
According to the sample answer provided: “An example of an individual being persecuted for their religion could be the Arab families living in Israel who practise the Islam religion rather than the Jewish religion.
Including unlawful demolition of homes and forced displacement and detainment of these families.”
It claims that “when a person is discriminated against … it could push a person to become more dogmatic in following their religion, possibly leading to extremism”.
Year 12 Mount Scopus students had taken the paper home during the school holidays to use as a practice exam, with students advising the school they were disturbed by the content.
“The issue is truth and falsehood, which must be of the utmost importance to an educational organisation,” Rabbi Kennard wrote to Ms Shelton.
“I would be most grateful if you could explain how this itself was allowed to happen; why the writers of the SAC presented this falsehood as fact; why neither the writers or the reviewers thought to seek verification for these very serious allegations; and what steps are
you taking to ensure that such defamatory falsehoods about Israel, or about any other nation, are never again presented by ACHPER to students.
Rabbi Kennard’s concerns were echoed by the Australian Jewish Association president David Adler.
“The truth is that Arab citizens in Israel enjoy more rights, freedoms and prosperity than anywhere else in the Middle East,” Dr Adler said.
“This is the sort of libel which fuels anti-Israel sentiment and builds antisemitism. It is totally unacceptable.”
Dr Adler said the decision by ACHPER to recall the paper did not deal with the issue at its root and called on Victoria’s Education Minister James Merlino “take action and ensure those responsible for such blatant anti-Israel activism and antisemitism are removed from the education system.
“There is no place for such attitudes in our education system,” he said.
Member for Caulfield David Southwick agreed, adding that “such biased material merely acts to heighten hostility towards the Jewish community”.
He criticised its dissemination to students, “who might not be informed of the complexities of Middle Eastern politics”.
Mr Southwick said he had written to Mr Merlino, calling on him to condemn the document and ensure that “politically-based materials” were not included in curriculum materials.
ACHPER’s Ms Shelton did not respond to a request for further comment.
Nor did Mr Merlino. The Victorian Department of Education also did not respond.
ACHPER is the independent peak professional group for health and physical education teachers and provides resources, assessment materials and practice exams to schools for fees.
It was also closely involved in the development of the national health and physical education curriculum.
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