School scene of cheating scandal

The Tseung Kwan O primary school where disgraced former principal So Yau-hang sexually assaulted his four colleagues is no stranger to controversy - it was the centre of a cheating scandal this year.

Yan Oi Tong Tin Ka Ping Primary School hit the news in February after allegations that teachers had helped students in an official city-wide assessment test that would affect the chances of those in lower grades when applying for secondary-school places.

So, head of the school since it was founded in 1999, formally resigned in April after an investigation into the first allegation that he had sexually assaulted one of his teachers.

During the month-long trial it emerged that allegations of his sexual misconduct only came to light when the school's supervising body looked into the cheating incident.

Education officials approached the school's sponsoring body last November to investigate the handling of the Territory-wide Systems Assessment test after they noted discrepancies. Students from the school had matching errors and spelling mistakes in the English part of the test. It was later alleged that teachers had written answers to test questions on the blackboard for students to copy.

During his evidence to the trial, school supervisor Dennis Tin Ding-sin said the board's investigation had found the principal and two teachers had been implicated in the cheating. So's defence argued the sexual allegations had been invented to discredit him in relation to the cheating scandal.