A high school has apologised for asking Year 12 students to write essays and make a YouTube video about Muslim ‘exclusion’.
Leumeah High School in Sydney’s south-west had asked Society and Culture students to deliver a five-minute oral presentation on the ‘social exclusion faced by people of Muslim faith in Australia’.
They were also required to explain ‘the barriers’ Muslims face in ‘accessing socially-valued resources’ in a YouTube video.
However following outrage from the parents and families of students, the New South Wales Department of Education has apologised on behalf of the high school near Campbelltown.
A high school has apologised for asking Year 12 students to write essays and make a YouTube video about Muslim ‘exclusion’
Leumeah High School had asked Society and Culture students to deliver a five-minute oral presentation on the ‘social exclusion faced by people of Muslim faith in Australia’ (file image)
The assessment task has also been removed from the school’s website.
A departmental spokesman said the Society and Culture syllabus, examining a contemporary issue, would be amended so students were asked about ‘social inclusion and exclusion’.
‘The department and the school are sorry if this question has caused any offence,’ he said.
The backflip from the school came after Yuhan Houth, who was born in a Thai refugee camp after his parents escaped Pol Pot’s murderous regime in Cambodia, said he regretted recommending that school for his younger brother, who turns 16 this year.
Yuhan Houth, who was born in a Thai refugee camp after his parents escaped Pol Pot’s murderous regime in Cambodia, said he regretted recommending that school for his brother
A refugee family is outraged at Leumeah High School in Sydney’s southwest for making Year 12 students write an essay on Muslim ‘exclusion’ (file picture)
The 32-year-old welder said the assessment task was based on a leading question rather than an analysis of facts.
‘From what I see here, I wouldn’t call it propaganda but you can’t really call it anything else,’ he told Daily Mail Australia on Tuesday.
‘I see it as indoctrinating them young.
‘I would have thought examinations would be more concerned about empirical things, objective matter not subjectivity dressed up as an opinion piece.’
The 32-year-old welder said the assessment task was based on a leading question rather than an analysis of facts
Mr Houth said the assessment topic also wrongly implied that immigrants weren’t welcome in Australia.
‘I’m more concerned about this particular narrative that’s been perpetuated,’ he said.
‘I don’t believe what they’re demanding from the students is accurate of the reality of what the situation is.’
He said students doing the assessment were effectively being forced to give a set answer, as part of a presentation which must be recorded or uploaded to YouTube for the teacher.
‘They would be obliged to give only the answers that they would be satisfied with in terms of any possible biases as opposed to just giving an honest opinion,’ he said.
Mr Houth said the assessment topic also wrongly implied that immigrants weren’t welcome in Australia
The older brother of a Leumeah High School student said the assessment was ‘indoctrinating the young’
Year 12 students are also required to explain ‘the barriers’ Muslims face in ‘accessing socially-valued resources’ in a YouTube video
Former federal Labor leader Mark Latham said the school, in his old electorate of Werriwa, had forced students to argue a left-wing narrative that ‘Muslims are hard done by because Australia is a racist nation’.
‘Given the contentious nature of current political debates about Islam, the students have been placed in a difficult position,’ he told his Facebook followers on Tuesday.
‘If their YouTube videos are too soft or too hard on Islam they might face different types of backlash. I feel sorry for the students and families facing this conundrum.’
Mark Latham’s social media followers were also outraged by Leumeah High School’s assessment task
One woman said it was outrageous students were taught Muslims weren’t welcome in Australia
Another woman suggested students were being groomed to hate Australia.
Mark Latham’s social media followers were also outraged.
‘Islamic indoctrination by the left and the education system,’ one man wrote.
‘My god, we are seriously losing the country.’
One woman said it was outrageous students were taught Muslims weren’t welcome in Australia.
‘Simply outraged. Muslims have been welcomed into this country for decades,’ she said.
‘They have the same chances and opportunities as all others, in some cases more than people born here.’
Another woman suggested students were being groomed to hate Australia.
‘These kids are being groomed and brainwashed in Islamics and sharia law,’ she said.
‘No, this is wrong. Politics should be kept out of schools.’