Six Islamic schools, accused of breaching Education Act, may lose federal funding

Six schools, accused of breaching the Australian Education Act, may lose federal funding. All six schools belong to Islamic ideologies.

According to Education Minister Simon Birmingham, those schools have been issued breach notices. The schools are Malek Fahd Islamic School (NSW), the Islamic College of Brisbane (QLD), the Islamic College of Melbourne (VIC), Langford Islamic College (WA), the Islamic College of South Australia (SA) and the Islamic School of Canberra (ACT).

Birmingham said an audit of those schools revealed issues related to their financial, accountability and governance arrangements. All six schools are affiliated to the Australian Federation of Islamic.

The schools will now have 28 days to respond to the breach notices to state how they comply with federal requirements. If they fail to comply with government standards, they may lose commonwealth funding.

“I am committed to ensuring that all school authorities meet the requirements of the Education Act to ensure that our taxpayer dollar and any private investment by parents is being spent as intended to benefit Australian students,” the education minister said. “My focus is always that we, as the taxpayer, get maximum bang for our buck to improve education outcomes for Australian children.”

Birmingham said the action would not “come lightly.”

“School governance should be of the highest standard and funding should be used for the benefits of students,” Birmingham added. “All schools must have effective management and accountability arrangements in place to support the best possible education outcomes for their students.”

Christopher Pyne, the former education minister, announced about the audits in June. The decision was taken after there had been media reports related to financial transactions, gender bias and senior staff movements in schools, The Guardian reports.

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