Written by 
Eunice Lam
A former administrator at an English Schools Foundation kindergarten yesterday pleaded guilty to nine charges of accepting over HK$900,000 in bribes from parents so that their children could be admitted to K1 classes.
Fatima Rumjahn, 52, was the administrator of the ESF at the time and responsible for handling K1 admissions of the group’s five kindergartens.
At the District Court, Rumjahn pleaded guilty to nine charges involving conspiracy to accept an advantage and as an agent accepting an advantage, leaving four additional charges of soliciting an advantage and conspiracy to accept an advantage on court file.
Deputy District Judge Amy Chan Wai-mun adjourned the sentencing until the parents’ trial for allegedly offering bribes and granted Rumjahn bail.
The trial of the 13 parents – aged between 33 and 45 – has been scheduled for November 14 and Rumjahn is expected to be a prosecution witness.
Earlier, the court heard that between the 2019/20 and 2021/22 school years, parents from eight families allegedly paid between HK$20,000 and HK$100,000 in bribes for the admission of 13 children to ESF Wu Kai Sha International Kindergarten in Ma On Shan.
According to ESF’s admission policy, applicants of kindergarten classes are classified into five categories, giving priority to as follows: children of ESF staff, siblings of current ESF students, holders of ESF’s kindergarten debentures, children of ESF’s alumni and other applicants.
The priority of applicants would depend on a computer-generated application number, with a smaller number given a higher priority.
Upon receiving an application, ESF typically invites children and their parents to an interview. If they pass the interview, Rumjahn, the administrator back then, would send an admission contract email to parents. Unsuccessful applicants would be placed on a waiting list.
Rumjahn initially sent the 13 parents an email that they had been placed in the waiting list, but later said she could arrange a place for them and asked for HK$20,000 as bribes, which gradually increased to HK$100,000.
One of the children was number two on the waiting list, but Rumjahn claimed there were some 40 applicants in the queue and subsequently received HK$100,000 in bribes.
The crime was revealed in February 2021, when an ESF internal auditor found Rumjahn violated the group’s admission policy and fired her. Rumjahn was arrested in April 2021.
eunice.lam@singtaonewscorp.com