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Fiona Sun

Hong Kong authorities have penalised an Education Bureau staff member over a Primary One admission allocation blunder after human error was found to be involved, with the officer to be denied a pay rise and transferred to other roles.
The government on Friday revealed the results of its investigation into the incident on June 2 when parents received SMS notifications about their children’s primary school allocations, a day before the official announcement.
The bureau’s hotline was flooded with calls from parents seeking clarification, and Secretary for Education Christine Choi Yuk-lin made a public apology to parents.
The investigation found that the officer had made an operational error while setting up the notification procedure in the morning.
The error resulted in the messages containing incorrect years and registration dates, as well as being sent to parents one day earlier than scheduled.
But the government said the incident had not affected the allocation results.
“Having regard to the nature of the incident, the negligence of the staff member concerned, the inconvenience caused to parents, the public attention and the impact on the government’s reputation, the Education Bureau has decided to take disciplinary follow-up action against the staff member concerned,” it said.
“Deficiencies in the performance of the relevant duties will be reflected in the staff member’s appraisal and an increment will not be granted. The staff member will also be transferred to perform other duties.”

According to the government, the investigation also found that another bureau staff member had failed to establish sufficient review and approval measures in the workflow process.
The government also said the staff member’s management performance was unsatisfactory.
It added that the person had been given advice and the bureau would reflect the shortcomings in the performance appraisal.
The investigation concluded that in addition to negligence, the incident showed areas where the workflow and supervision could be improved, the government said.
Recommended measures included clearly outlining the workflow, division of duties and approval arrangements for sending messages with regular reviews and updates.
A multi-tier approval procedure should be established to send messages, and the delivery only activated after confirmation by staff members from multiple levels, it said.
It added that once the delivery was confirmed, changes should be restricted.
Practical drills should be held before any mass deliveries, while training sessions on system operations should be held regularly to improve staff members’ understanding of the workflow and dissemination system.
“The school places allocation section of the Education Bureau has immediately implemented the above enhancement measures,” the government said.
“Other sections will also enhance processes involving dissemination of information to the public according to the above principles to ensure the accuracy and reliability of the relevant information.”


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Hong Kong

Education

Staff member made error while setting up notification, resulting in messages sent out day earlier with wrong years and registration dates


Staff member made error while setting up notification, resulting in messages sent out day earlier with wrong years and registration dates.


Hong Kong's Education Bureau

Education Bureau to deny pay rise to worker after SMS blunder over school places

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Staff member made error while setting up notification, resulting in messages sent out day earlier with wrong years and registration dates

Staff member made error while setting up notification, resulting in messages sent out day earlier with wrong years and registration dates