Australia’s largest Islamic school has lost its appeal to retain federal funding, the federal education minister has confirmed.
In February, Simon Birmingham announced that Sydney’s Malek Fahd would have $19m worth of federal funding withdrawn over allegations of financial mismanagement.
Malek Fahd’s school board appealed against that decision, but on Monday was told the appeal had failed because it failed to comply with financial transparency measures in the federal Education Act.
“The internal reviewer has affirmed the original decision and federal funding for Malek Fahd Islamic School Limited will cease from 8 April 2016,” Birmingham said. “I am committed to ensuring that all school authorities meet the requirements of the Education Act to ensure that our taxpayer dollars and any private investment by parents is being spent to benefit Australian students.”
A spokesman for Australian Federation of Islamic Councils (Afic), Wasim Raza, said the imminent closure of the school was a sad development.
“It’s a huge, huge disappointment for the Muslim community. We’ll have to see if there is any recourse [to the decision],” he said. “All options will be seriously considered.”
Last month Birmingham said all Islamic schools under review had the option to fund themselves, but Raza said that would be difficult.
“Parents alone can’t keep it open. It’s a huge amount of money that needs to be raised,” he said.
In a statement, the chair of the interim board of the school, Miriam Silva, said that the school community was working to ensure full compliance with the Department of Education.
“The interim board accepts and continues to take required action to remedy and address the commonwealth’s concerns,” she said.
“Malek Fahd Islamic School will immediately apply to the commonwealth Administrative Appeals Tribunal to seek continuation of public funding and a review of today’s decision”
Lawyer for Malek Fahd, Rick Mitry, said that the school would consider taking the fight all the way to the high court.
“It’s not the end of the day by any stretch of the imagination,” he said.
He said the school had enough saved up to stay open until the end of the year.
The school is one of six affiliated with Afic under investigation over concerns about financial transparency. One other Afic-affiliated school, the Islamic School of Canberra, has had its funding stopped and has also appealed.
A spokesman for the federal education department told Guardian Australia that the Canberra school has until 26 April to appeal, but its funding will cease on 8 April regardless of whether an appeal is lodged.
Four other schools – in Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide and Melbourne – have until 11 April to reform their governance structures and financial accountability or face the axe.
