Statement by EDB on SMS incident of Central Allocation for Primary One Admission
The Education Bureau (EDB) today (June 2) clarified the incident of erroneous SMS notifications regarding Primary One Admission (POA) sent to Hong Kong parents, and expressed its deepest apologies for any inconvenience caused.
The Education Bureau (EDB), Photo source: reference image
An EDB spokesperson said that according to preliminary investigations, the results of the Central Allocation for POA, originally scheduled to be announced starting tomorrow (June 3), were mistakenly sent ahead of schedule today due to an operational error in the sending procedure of the system. Upon learning of the incident, the EDB immediately took action to correct the procedure.
To safeguard the interests of every student, the EDB immediately conducted a comprehensive and rigorous review of the allocation information for all students after the incident. The EDB hereby clarifies to parents that the SMS notifications this morning do not affect the allocation results.
The EDB also notified parents via SMS this morning, advising them to disregard the earlier SMS notifications regarding POA. The EDB also appealed to parents not to contact the schools hastily. The EDB has immediately set up dedicated hotlines (telephone: 2832 7700/2832 7740) to respond to parents' enquiries. All official POA results with complete and accurate registration details will be released as originally scheduled, starting from 7.30am tomorrow (June 3).
The spokesperson emphasised that the EDB's information systems have been operating reliably. After an immediate and thorough check by the technical team, it was confirmed that the systems were not subject to any cyberattack or hacker intrusion. The core database remains intact. This incident is entirely unrelated to information security or cybersecurity. The personal data of parents and students are highly encrypted and protected.
The EDB attaches great importance to this incident and has immediately set up a crisis management team to follow up on the matter, and will conduct a comprehensive review of the systems, procedures, and manpower support. If any negligence by personnel or procedural errors is found, the EDB will seriously follow up the matter. The EDB will further enhance the monitoring processes of the systems and dissemination mechanisms to prevent similar incidents from recurring.
The EDB once again thanks schools and parents for their understanding and will make every effort to ensure the smooth release of the official allocation results tomorrow.
Primary students in Hong Kong, Photo by Bastille Post
