Language skills pose hurdle for mainland students arriving under Hong Kong talent schemes
Many secondary schools have seen surge in transfer students from mainland relocating with their parents in recent months
Wong Ching-yung, principal of Scientia Secondary School, said on Monday that his institution in Ho Man Tin had accepted about 120 transfer students from the mainland in the new academic year.
More than 100 were from mainland families who had relocated to Hong Kong under the Top Talent Pass Scheme in the past year, with most of them being Form One and Form Four students, he said.
“We stopped taking in transfers in July as we are already at our maximum capacity, and we have over 100 students on our waiting list,” Wong added.
Many secondary schools have seen a surge in the number of transfer students from the mainland who have relocated with their parents in recent months.
Official data shows that so far 47,732 dependants under the age of 18 have had their applications approved under the Top Talent Pass Scheme designed to recruit talent from outside the city and launched in December 2022. About 95 per cent of the applicants are from the mainland.
