A tale of two schools

Muslim private schools are flourishing and relatively new educational institutions. Their rapid rise though, masks the relative quality of their contribution. Two articles in today’s Herald on Malek Fahed and St. Ignatius highlight – perhaps starkly – the difference between high quality caring for young people and those characterised by more short term gains.
Muslim schools are varied in how and why they were established. Many are the natural addition to the institutionalisation of culture – establishing a community association based on country of origin, language, or religious minority group, acquiring land for a mosque, then adding a school. Most were established in response to a perceived need and not based on any philosophy of teaching or even an informed understanding of the long term and immediate needs of their students.
Schools have brought substantial wealth to the entities that established them through generous funding for land and recurrent costs. Malek Fahed (pictured above) in Sydney is a prime example but only one of a number of successful Muslim schools throughout Australia. Funding however, is tied to enrolments and in the competitive and aspirational society of migrant Sydney, enrolments are tied to HSC results. Successful ranking schools results in extensive building programs, impressive Assembly halls, libraries, computing labs and occasionally sporting facilities. More comprehensive schools are a temporary and secondary choice.
However beautiful buildings and the drive for continuing high marks are not always conducive to the actual needs of individual students. Children are emotional and vulnerable creatures who may excel in any number of areas according to the nurturing and care provided by highly qualified and supportive teachers. St. Ignatius employs creative artists and playwrights – including one of the writers of “Dusty, the original pop diva”, “Shout, the legend of the wild one” and the recent play ‘Her Holiness’ – with a policy of encouraging a wide range of sporting and artistic areas alongside academic scholarship, The number and variety of charitable projects in which this school’s current and former students are engaged are exemplified by the commitment to Aboriginal children reported by Miranda Devine “Schooled out of Aboriginal disadvantage“, even providing holiday care to cater for the disruption of returning to a dysfunctional family life.
In contrast Malek Fahed has gained a reputation for enrolling a large contingent in the earliest years and cherry picking only the best and brightest. With intense pressure to perform, students who do not make the required marks are required to repeat, enrol in hot house tutoring or leave the school, so that only the most capable remain in the final years. The emotional damage that is incurred by the ‘failures’ of this system are huge. Not only is there a wastage of traumatised students who have not met the required standard, there is also no support for giftedness in areas other than the traditional and basic subjects of Science, Maths and the essential Humanities. Even such survivors may be required to study at TAFE in order to avoid their lower marks compromising the school’s high ranking in HSC results (Private School’s Strugglers at TAFE).
Muslim schools must address the inequities of their school systems and look at the narrow agenda driving sometimes repressive procedures. Traditionally Muslim scholarship has emphasised acquiring knowledge for its own sake, not for the status of high marks alone. The Board of Studies must also ensure that tax payers funding is tied to an equitable and compassionate type of schooling that meets the individual needs of students not just the high reputation of the school.