Islamic College of South Australia: Education union advises parents to pull students from school

Parents at the Islamic College of South Australia are being advised by the state’s independent schools union to consider sending their children elsewhere because of ongoing controversy over the school’s management and curriculum.

A review of the school at Croydon was this week ordered by the State Government following weeks of complaints by parents.

Several protests were held there, with parents claiming mismanagement by the board resulted in the sacking of key staff and the decline of academic standards.

The Independent Education Union represents 200 schools, including the Islamic College.

Its secretary, Glen Seidel, said the Croydon college was involved in more legal battles than “than the rest put together”.

Mr Seidel believes the parents may need to take drastic action solve their grievances.

“Ultimately, all they have to do is pull their kids out and have a school with no kids. That’s their ultimate bargaining power,” he said.

“The solution is about cultural change at the school and for true cultural change, you really need to have that coming from within.

“I’m really encouraged that the parent group are voicing their strong concerns.”

Mr Seidel said some had already begun to pull their children out of the school.

“But they’re leaving that as a last resort because there are a lot of people reminiscing about early times [at the school] and they want the school to continue, and if they leave it it’s going to be destroyed.”

Parent Souraya Serhan said pulling students out of the school would be the “easy option”.

“That would be the easy way out of doing it, but we’re not in for the easy way out,” she said.

“Because the school has been running for a long time as a successful school, to just leave the school and the few people who don’t know how to fight a battle and continue to be short-changed with their kids ... it’s not going to solve anything.

“We need to continue this [fight], and we need to continue this as a community and as a group.”

The school’s controlling body is the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils which runs similar colleges in other states.

State Government investigates financial mismanagement

Some parents have told the ABC a highly conservative Islamic curriculum is being taught at the school, which has more than 600 students.

They claim dissent and dissenters are stifled, or sacked.

The State Government is now investigating accusations of financial mismanagement at the college which receives 10 per cent of its funding from the State Government, and 70 per cent from the Federal Government.

Ms Serhan has called on the Federal Government to also investigate the college.

“The Federal Government is called upon to assist a very, very vulnerable group of people that are being short-changed, as well as their children in to proper education, which is what the Government is giving these people the money for,” she said.

“We are being dismissed from the current board that we don’t have a problem, but we do have a problem and we need the help of the community at large as well as the Federal Government to show that we are, as Muslims, trying to do the right thing.”

A public relations firm is handling media requests for SA College chairman Farouk Khan.

They said Mr Khan was unavailable for comment.

See more on this Topic