Hong Kong police arrest invigilator over university entrance exam leak on social media
- Woman surnamed Lau, 23, arrested on suspicion of violating Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority Ordinance, police say
- Exams authority says incident had no impact on integrity of test given leak occurred after it took place
A 23-year-old invigilator has been arrested on suspicion of posting content of Hong Kong’s ongoing university entrance exams on social media, the Post has learned.
The Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority said on Thursday the incident had not affected the integrity of the test as the leak occurred after it took place.
Police said the woman, surnamed Lau, was arrested on suspicion of violating the Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority Ordinance.
The insider added that it could not be ruled out that the woman committed the crime to benefit her own tutorial businesses.
She has been granted bail pending investigation and is required to report to police in mid-May.
The case was still under investigation, police said.
Hong Kong exams body to alert police over alleged online leak of test content
The authority said preliminary evidence suggested that the person leaked the information after the related subject exams had finished.
“The confidentiality of DSE has not been affected,” it said.
According to the Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority Ordinance, all appointees of the authority, including DSE examination personnel, should ensure secrecy while performing their duties.
“The authority has reminded the examination personnel of all examination centres that it is strictly prohibited to reproduce or publish the content of examination papers in any format without the approval of the [authority],” it said.
The authority filed a report Tuesday to police after a user on the popular Chinese social media platform Xiaohongshu allegedly uploaded the question and answer book for this year’s English-language listening test.
The test in question belonged to paper 3 of the English-language test taken on April 13, according to a post on a Facebook page named Edu Lancent on Monday.
The Xiaohongshu post was first exposed in a DSE forum on Dcard, an online social media platform based in Taiwan, according to the Facebook post.
Hong Kong DSE 2023: police arrest teacher over leak of exam marking scheme
A screenshot of the Xiaohongshu account included in the post showed the user claiming to have come to the city during secondary school and holding a bachelor’s degree from Hong Kong Shue Yan University as well as a master’s degree from the University of Hong Kong.
The account also stated the user was an educator at a secondary school and taught online tutorial classes for students newly arrived from mainland China.
The Post earlier found that all posts and descriptions had been deleted from the Xiaohongshu account.
Police have reminded the public that anyone who contravenes the relevant provisions of the Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority Ordinance is liable to a maximum penalty of six months imprisonment and a fine of HK$25,000 (US$3,192).
Separately, the exam authority condemned those who circulated an “entirely false” marking scheme for this year’s DSE papers concerning the citizenship and social development subject.
It stressed that DSE papers and marking schemes were highly confidential.
Additional reporting by Lilian Cheng
