The Hong Kong Education Bureau (EDB) has apologized for mistakenly sending the Primary One allocation results by SMS a day early, asking parents to ignore the message.
EDB said on Tuesday that an “operational error” in setting up a system-controlled text messaging function led to Primary One results being sent by SMS on Tuesday morning, instead of Wednesday morning.
She said she had sent a clarifying SMS to parents, telling them to ignore the earlier message and wait for the official results, which will be released at 7.30am on Wednesday.
SMS text messages sent on Tuesday morning appeared to contain incorrect information. Some parents said local media that they received messages indicating the wrong year and, in some cases, the wrong school choices.
An EDB spokesman said the message sent ahead of time will not affect the results of the Primary One central allocation.
“After a full-scale review by technical teams, it is confirmed that the system has not been subjected to any cyber attack or hacking and the core database remains integral and complete,” the spokesman said in a Chinese-language statement.
“This incident is completely unrelated to information security and cyber security,” the spokesperson added.
Two hotlines – 2832 7700 and 2832 7740 – have been set up to answer parents’ queries, the bureau said, urging parents not to contact schools based on Tuesday’s SMS.
The EDB said it had formed a crisis response team to look into the incident, including whether the system or any personnel were at fault.
This year’s central Primary One allocation has a high satisfaction rate of 93.6 per cent, the bureau said last week.
A total of 16,345 children took part this year, with just over 14,000 allocated to schools in their first three choices, according to in EDB.
