Goverment Funding the Fall of Multiculturalism in Private Schools?

In July 2012 the non government school Sydney school Malek Fahd, was ordered to pay back $9,038,255 to the state government after it was found that government funding was not being spent on the school resources but being transferred to the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils to pay for “non existent services”(Shanaan, 2012) . It was deemed that the school was operating for profit, which was in direct violation of the Schools Assistance Act 2008. This article helps to highlight the extent of government funding of private schools in NSW. Whilst it has been proven that this funding stimulates inequalities across the public and private sector, I would like to look at what the cultural implications of this funding are for Sydney.

The revenue from school fees already places the school in an advantageous position over public schools in Sydney in terms of resources and capital. With private schools already receiving double the government funding from 2009 to 2013[3] than public schools in Australia, the inequality of funding is felt nation wide. I am aware of how contentious this issue is, and the concern is not with the certain religious denomination of this school, yet it’s unethical distribution of state government funds. The abuse of government funds from this ethno cultural school suggests a lack of transparency of government funding to private schools and further exasperates the issue of unequal funding. The ability of Malek Fahd to spend over 9 million dollars of government funds outside of educational resources and still be a top placing school in the state marks the inequality of educational funding in Australia.

 The Australian education system aims to nurture and promote cultural respect, and ethno cultural schools, like Malek Fahd are an example of this (Ho, 2011, p.605). A perspective which challenges this promotion of multiculturalism is Ho's notion of "White flight' (p.612) from ethno cultural schools in that are viewed as ethnic ghettos. Ho expands on this point further with the idea “ethno religious racism”(p.611), which pertains to the isolation of ‘the other’ and potentially hinders cross cultural interaction. this is important to the cultural identity of Sydney as private schools are not becoming sites of intercultural exchange but are remaining static homogenised communities. this issue highlights concerns brought up in an opinion piece in the Sydney Morning Herald, 'Is Sydney a city of enclaves?' (2012), as individuals express concerns of monocultural areas and the negative impacts that has on multiculturalism  I believe the most alarming perspective is that the government is also responsible for the undoing of multiculturalism as  Ho argues that “in all regions of Sydney public schools have the highest level of cultural diversity and independent schools the lowest” (Ho, 2011, p. 606). Meaning that a low level of cultural diversity correlates to more government funding. 

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1. Shanaan, L. (2012) Malek Fahd Islamic school to repay $9m in public funds, The Australian .

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/state-politics/malek-fahd-islamic-school-to- repay-9m-in-public-funds/story-e6frgczx-1226438977643

[2] Australian Governemtn, Schools assistance act 2008, accessed from http://www.comlaw.gov.au/Details/C2008A00153/Download

[3] Gonski D, Boston K, Greiner K, Lawrence C, Scales B, Tannock P (2011) Review of Funding for Schooling: Final Report, Australian Government, Retrieved from: http://www.deewr.gov.au/Schooling/ReviewofFunding/Documents/Review-of-Funding-for-Schooling-Final-Report-Dec-2011.

[4] Ho, C 2011, ‘Respecting the presence of others: school micropublics and everyday mutliculturailsm;, Journal of Intercutlrual Studies, pp605-611

Veiszdeh, M. (2012) Is Sydney a city of enclaves?, The Sydney Morning Herald
accessed at: http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/the-question/is-sydney-a-city-of-enclaves-20111111-1nb68.html