Top HK tutor faces graft charges

ONE of Hong Kong’s top “celebrity tutors,” who rose to prominence by promising exam success to under-pressure students, has been charged by the city’s anti-corruption bureau for leaking questions from public university entrance papers.

Cut-throat competition in the Chinese territory’s education system has spawned soughtafter tutors who claim to transform students into A-grade pupils by providing exam skills training, tips-sharing and even predictions of test questions.

Siao Chi-yung, 42, also known as Siu Yuen professionally, carved out a lucrative career based on his apparent knack for forecasting test questions correctly in public exams.

Local media has reported that Siao raked in an annual salary of HK$16 million (US$2 million) as a teacher of Chinese language, which is a core subject of the Hong Kong school curriculum.

But Siao is now facing charges related to illegally obtaining confidential exam material.

Hong Kong’s Independent Commission Against Corruption alleged that a probe had revealed that a former examiner and Siao’s wife had used their smartphones to send him confidential questions from Chinese language tests for university entrance exams.

Siao faces two joint charges of conspiracy to obtain access to a computer with dishonest intent, along with two former Chinese examiners. He faces a third joint charge with his wife, Tsai Yingying, of accessing a computer with dishonest intent.

Tsai is also a Chinese language tutor at the same tutorial school, Modern Education.

Schools build up the profile of their impeccably-styled tutors through marketing campaigns which resemble ads for TV shows or music stars.

Hong Kong parents, often desperate to help their children succeed in the city’s intense public-exam system, are more than willing to shell out large sums for extra-curricular help.

University places are notably highly prized — only 40 percent of students who took the Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education Exam qualified with their scores last year.