A former teaching assistant has been jailed for two weeks in Hong Kong and fined HK$5,000 (US$643) for leaking university entrance exam questions on a mainland Chinese social media platform to promote herself ahead of the launch of a private tuition business.
Lau Kwun-hei, 23, was escorted to Eastern Court on Wednesday to be sentenced for breaching a confidentiality requirement on invigilators of the Diploma of Secondary Education (DSE) examinations.
The 23-year-old defendant, known as “Ms.Lucy” on the popular Instagram-like Xiaohongshu platform, pleaded guilty last month to publishing without authorisation two pages of the question and answer book after this year’s English listening assessment that concluded on April 13.
Principal Magistrate Don So Man-lung said the offence did not cause substantial unfairness to the procedure, as Lau only leaked the confidential material after the exam when all candidates were free to discuss it openly.
However, he noted the accused had acted for personal gain, in a bid to take advantage of her position to attract attention from future prospective students.
“The defendant is young and lacks awareness of the law,” the magistrate said. “This is a small price to pay but a huge lesson to learn.”
DSE invigilators are required to sign a confidentiality agreement with the Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority and are only allowed to keep answer books for teaching purposes, as long as they do not publicise them.
