Islamic School of Canberra to lose federal funding

About $1 million in annual federal funding to the Islamic School of Canberra will cease next month.

Education Minister Senator Simon Birmingham.

About $1 million in annual federal funding to the Islamic School of Canberra will cease next month, Education Minister Simon Birmingham has confirmed today amid concerns about the governance and financial management of the school.

The approved authority — or operating body — which manages the Islamic school in the nation’s capital had requested a review of the Education Department’s original decision to revoke the authority as an approved body to receive federal schools funding.

The internal review has today upheld the original decision to end the flow of funds to the school.

“The original decision detailed the department’s concerns about the authority’s governance and financial management arrangements,’’ Senator Birmingham said. “Australians rightly expect that every taxpayer dollar committed to school education is genuinely expended on school education.’’

Senator Birmingham said the Education Department began a formal review into the financial management and governance arrangements of the Islamic School of Canberra in May 2015 alongside five other schools affiliated with the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils (AFIC).

These included the Malek Fahd Islamic School in Sydney and the Islamic College of South Australia.

Despite time extensions, the Islamic School of Canberra’s authority, or operating body, failed to comply with basic requirements.

“The decision means from 16 December 2017, the authority will no longer receive Australian Government funding. The school can continue to operate as long as it remains registered by the ACT Government and is financially viable,’’ Senator Birmingham said.

“I urge the school’s authorities to outline its future plans to give certainty to its students and families.’’

The My School website shows in 2015 the school received $1,041,528 in federal funding, and had 190 students from Kindergarten to year 7.

In its promotional material on the My School website, the school boasts that its “religious studies program seeks to enhance the knowledge, skills, attitudes and spiritual awareness needed by students to understand themselves, their relationship with Allah and others’’.

Islamic Studies and Arabic language form integral parts of the school program but “students are taught to live and model their behaviour along the Australian values’’ and follow a curriculum which incorporates both religious and academic studies, the school says.

“After carefully considering the responses received from the authority responsible for the management of the Islamic School of Canberra, my department had to make the difficult decision to revoke the funding approval for the authority,’’ Senator Birmingham said.

“The School’s authority requested an internal review of the decision made to revoke funding for the school.’’

“All school authorities must meet the requirements of the Education Act to receive funding from the Australian Government. School governance should be of the highest standard and funding should be exclusively used for the education and welfare of students.’’