A former administrator at an international kindergarten has been jailed for two years and one month after pleading guilty to accepting over HK$640,000 in bribes to help secure admissions for children applying to the school.

Fatima Rumjahn, an ex-administrator at the English Schools Foundation’s (ESF) Wu Kai Sha International Kindergarten, appeared at the West Kowloon Law Courts Building on Monday to receive her sentence.

She was charged nearly four years ago with taking money from 13 parents and a middleman in exchange for moving children up the kindergarten’s admissions waitlist.

Handing down the sentence, Deputy District Judge Amy Chan said Rumjahn “took advantage of the parents’ wish to provide better education for their children and proactively offered to help them jump the queue.”

Rumjahn pleaded guilty in October 2024 and agreed to be a prosecution witness in the hope of receiving a lighter sentence. She testified against the 13 parents and the middleman, who was helping his business partner’s daughter secure admission.

The 14 other defendants were found guilty in February and sentenced in early April to up to one year and two months.

According to the prosecution’s case, Rumjahn accepted bribes while working at the kindergarten between September 2018 and August 2021, promising to give the children priority admission. Those children had already passed their admission interviews but were at the bottom of the waitlist, the court heard.

Judge Chan also ordered Rumjahn to pay back the HK$640,000 to ESF as compensation.