Getting your kids into a good school in Hong Kong is a notoriously gruelling process – a process that can be made much easier if you have a mole on the inside, it has been alleged.
Four primary school teachers in Hong Kong have been accused of leaking questions from entrance examination papers to their friends and parents of prospective pupils.
According to the SCMP, prosecutor Louisa Lai told Kowloon City Court yesterday that Cheng Ka-yee – a 38-year-old teacher at Church of Christ in China Heep Woh Primary School in Prince Edward – confessed under caution to taking pictures of admission paper questions.
Cheng then used a middle person to WhatsApp the questions to a student, it is alleged.
Senior school promotional officer Chong Wai-chu, who was briefing teachers about procedures and scoring for the test on June 13, 2014, when the alleged incident took place, was apparently suspicious that Cheng was taking pictures – but didn’t pull her up for it.
She claimed that she saw Cheung put both the question sheet and marking scheme for the upcoming admissions test on her lap… with her phone “in the vicinity”, (a strong accusation in the 21st Century).
The prosecutor also claimed that Cheng’s colleague, 35-year-old Tsang Wing-shan, emailed the same questions to another party in relation to a different pupil.
The Independent Commission Against Corruption searched the computer files of a third teacher, 41-year-old Wong Pui-man, over the next fortnight and found that she possessed files containing the same set of questions.
Under caution, Wong admitted that she had sent the questions to another recipient in relation to a different student, and had promised this recipient that she would help refer two other pupils to the school.
The last teacher to be accused, 37-year-old U Leng-kok, who taught at a different primary school, is said to have leaked the same set of questions to two other students. Lai claimed that Tsang (U’s former schoolmate) had passed the questions on.
(Yes, it’s all very confusing and reminiscent of kids passing notes in class. Try to keep up.)
All four teachers have pleaded not guilty to one count of obtaining access to a computer with a view to dishonest gain.
The court got a cheeky peek at the school’s admission criteria on Monday, finding that candidates are scored on their pronunciation of English and Chinese words, and whether they are “a humble learner with good concentration and cooperative parents”.
Five percent of the overall mark was assigned to the parents’ attitude and appearance, proving once and for all that Philip Larkin had a point.
The trial continues.
