More than 8,000 newly arrived children from the mainland had to repeat classes when they were admitted to Hong Kong schools in the last academic year, the Education Department says.
The proportion was higher in secondary schools, where 80 per cent of 1,962 children repeated the same grade or went into a lower grade. In primary schools, 53 per cent of 12,966 mainland children repeated classes.
Fourteen per cent of students admitted into Primary Four to Six went to secondary schools in China before coming to the territory.
More than 14,900 children from China were admitted to 172 secondary and 469 primary schools in the last school year - triple the 1986 figure.
About 90 per cent and 70 per cent of mainland children admitted to secondary and primary schools respectively were older than their classmates. Fifty-two per cent of secondary students were weak in English, 10 per cent bad in Chinese and about 10 per cent poor in mathematics.
Only 2.4 per cent were assessed to be good at English, 17 per cent good at Chinese and 17 per cent good at mathematics.
