Hong Kong Plans School Language Review as English Proficiency Falls

A Review That Could Reshape Secondary Education

Hong Kong's Education Bureau plans to review the language used to teach subjects in public secondary schools for the 2028-29 to 2033-34 academic years, as the city faces declining English proficiency and pressure to prepare students for universities where English dominates. The review would be the first major evaluation of the policy since adjustments introduced in 2010.

As of February 2, 2026, the bureau is awaiting the findings of a University of Hong Kong (HKU) study that followed English medium instruction across three representative schools for three academic years, beginning in 2022-23. Researchers have finished collecting data and are analysing it before submitting their report.

The review brings together several concerns: how well students understand lessons, whether teachers can teach subjects effectively in English, and whether secondary education supports Hong Kong's ambition to become an international education hub. Parents also face a system in which schools permitted to teach mainly in English carry greater prestige and attract intense competition.

Currently, 114 government and subsidised secondary schools qualify to use English as their main teaching language. Other schools generally teach in Chinese, with limited opportunities to use English for subject teaching or extended learning activities. Educators seeking greater flexibility argue that this leaves many students facing an abrupt language change when they enter university.

The bureau has indicated that the HKU findings and input from the education sector will inform possible adjustments. The precise changes have not been decided, and no date has been given for publication of the study's findings.

What the University Study Will Contribute

HKU's research is a longitudinal study, meaning it follows the same subjects over time instead of taking a single snapshot. Repeated observations across academic years can reveal changes and patterns and help researchers investigate possible relationships between teaching practices and outcomes.

An Education Bureau spokeswoman explained the stage reached by the researchers:

HKU has completed the collection of data in three school years and is currently conducting a detailed analysis, after which it will submit a report to the Education Bureau,

The spokeswoman also described the bureau's intended next steps:

The Education Bureau will review the policy and share the research findings with stakeholders in a timely manner.

The three schools give researchers an opportunity to examine how English medium instruction works over several years. The study offers an empirical basis for decisions in a debate that has often been driven by political pressure and parental demand.

Teachers' handling of language choices is also relevant to the review. The study may examine how they manage the demands of teaching in English, including when switching languages helps students understand a subject while continuing to develop English skills. Its detailed findings are still being analysed.

How Schools Qualify to Teach in English

Hong Kong's policy uses students' academic performance to determine which schools may adopt English as their main medium of instruction. A school qualifies when at least 85 percent of its Form One intake performed within the top 40 percent citywide during the previous planning cycle.

Form One is the beginning of secondary education. The rule therefore connects a school's language arrangements to the academic profile of the pupils entering it. The 85 percent threshold refers to the proportion of that intake meeting the performance requirement, while the top 40 percent refers to their position across the city.

The 114 qualifying government and subsidised schools are commonly described as English medium instruction schools, or EMI schools. Schools teaching mainly in Chinese are known as Chinese medium instruction schools, or CMI schools. Families often regard admission to an EMI school as a route to stronger university and career opportunities.

Schools outside the threshold must teach primarily in Chinese, although they may offer extended learning activities in English or teach up to two subjects in the language. Those exceptions provide some English exposure within a system that still places substantial limits on subject teaching in English.

Parents' preference for EMI schools makes secondary allocation a process with major consequences that begins with competition in primary school. The perceived status gap between the two groups remains central to the debate: changing classroom language also affects which schools families seek and how they judge educational opportunity.

How the Policy Reached This Point

Hong Kong introduced a strict mother tongue teaching policy in 1998, following the 1997 handover and reunification with China. It required the vast majority of secondary schools to teach in Cantonese, creating a sharp division between schools using English and those using Chinese.

The policy aimed to help students learn through their native language. Supporters argued that this would improve understanding of ideas and academic performance, while reducing the rote memorisation and language switching associated by critics with ineffective teaching in English.

Parents who regarded English as essential for university access and economic advancement opposed the restrictions. Critics argued that reducing English exposure during adolescence weakened language development and helped create a system with two levels of perceived status and opportunity.

Research published by Cambridge University Press describes three phases of Hong Kong's language policy since the handover and calls the process the "long march to biliteracy and trilingualism". The stated goal was ambitious: students should read and write Chinese and English and speak Cantonese, Putonghua and English.

The government introduced adjustments in 2010 to give CMI schools more flexibility to teach individual subjects in English. Those measures responded to mounting concerns, but educators argue that the remaining restrictions still leave a gap between secondary school preparation and the language demands of higher education.

The main stages of the policy and the planned review are:

• 1997: Hong Kong's handover to China set the context for changes in language policy.
• 1998: The mother tongue policy required the vast majority of secondary schools to teach in Cantonese.
• 2010: Adjustments allowed greater flexibility for English use in schools teaching mainly in Chinese.
• 2022-23: HKU began its study of English medium instruction in three representative schools.
• February 2, 2026: Data collection across three academic years was complete, with analysis under way.
• 2028-29 to 2033-34: The academic years identified for the forthcoming policy arrangements.

Falling English Proficiency Adds Pressure

Hong Kong has fallen in the global English Proficiency Index for four consecutive years and now ranks 39th worldwide. It stands third in Asia, behind Malaysia and the Philippines.

Singapore, frequently used as a regional benchmark in discussions of language policy, has been reclassified as a native English speaking country and no longer appears in the index. The current Asian ranking therefore places Hong Kong behind Malaysia and the Philippines without a Singapore entry for comparison.

High literacy rates sit alongside concerns about weaker spoken English among graduates. Reading and writing ability and the capacity to speak confidently are different parts of language proficiency, and students need both when they move into university study or international business.

The decline has sharpened concern about Hong Kong's economic competitiveness. English is central to the international commerce, academic research and collaboration that the city seeks to support. Educators see the review as an opportunity to examine whether students receive enough sustained practice before leaving school.

Hong Kong's challenge is also practical. A student may understand a subject in Chinese yet struggle to follow the same ideas in an English lecture or textbook. The school language debate concerns how to build the language skills needed alongside subject knowledge.

The Jump From School to University

The Council of Subsidised Secondary Schools has urged authorities to expand permission for English medium instruction. Its concern is that students taught mainly in Chinese are insufficiently prepared for tertiary programmes conducted almost exclusively in English.

Students can spend six years learning primarily in Chinese before entering university classrooms where lectures, textbooks and examinations assume a very high level of English comprehension. For some CMI graduates, that shift produces academic shock, affecting confidence and performance during the first year.

The criticism accompanying the call for wider English teaching connects school restrictions directly to the city's education ambitions:

When schools are policy-bound to teach in Chinese, we are clearly not preparing our students to be part of the city's education hub ambitions. This shows up a huge gap in our policies.

Universities use English extensively in academic discussion, research publication and international collaboration. Students moving from CMI schools may therefore face two tasks at once: mastering more advanced material and learning to work with it in another language.

The 2010 adjustments gave schools some room to prepare students for that transition. Educators seeking further change argue that English activities and a maximum of two subjects taught in English leave too little space for preparation across the curriculum. The prestige gap between EMI and CMI schools also continues to drive competition and concerns about educational inequality.

Why Teacher Skills Matter

English medium instruction means using English to teach academic subjects in a place where most people's first language is not English. A science lesson taught in English, for example, asks students to understand scientific ideas while also following the language used to explain them.

Teachers need more than general English proficiency to make that work. They must explain subject content, recognise when language is blocking understanding and help students acquire the vocabulary needed for the subject. Teaching effectively through a second language requires specific classroom skills.

Academic research examining Hong Kong's EMI settings describes difficulties with strict English only approaches. Students may lack the language competence needed to follow lessons entirely in English, while teachers can struggle to manage effective instruction under those conditions.

Institutions also frequently lack adequate English support for students and comprehensive training programmes for EMI teachers. When those supports are missing, language barriers can interfere with learning the subject itself.

The Education Bureau has stressed that adjustments must take account of teacher standards alongside student needs. Increasing the number of subjects taught in English would require teachers capable of delivering them effectively. Otherwise, students could return to relying on memorisation rather than understanding, a concern associated with English teaching before the 1998 policy.

Using More Than One Language to Explain Ideas

Recent scholarship has explored translanguaging as one response to difficulties in EMI classrooms. The term describes teaching that draws on the languages students know rather than treating each language as a completely separate resource.

In Hong Kong, this can mean a teacher strategically using Cantonese or Putonghua to help explain difficult content while building students' English vocabulary and comprehension. The purpose is to use their existing language knowledge to support learning in English.

Studies examining this approach in Hong Kong EMI settings suggest it can reduce cognitive load, or the amount of mental effort a student must use at once. Following an unfamiliar concept through an unfamiliar language can make a lesson harder. An explanation in a familiar language can help students grasp the idea while they learn its English terminology.

Science, technology, engineering and mathematics subjects present particular challenges because they combine complex concepts with dense technical vocabulary. Research suggests that using students' full language resources can help them understand that material while developing the English needed to discuss it.

Teachers still need training to choose when and how to move between languages. Explicit policy support is also necessary, and both remain inconsistent. The task is to support comprehension without weakening the development of English proficiency, rather than simply increasing the amount of English heard in a classroom.

The HKU study may help explain how teachers navigate these choices. Its analysis could inform the practical preparation schools need if the bureau broadens permission for English teaching.

Three Languages and Competing Priorities

Hong Kong's language policy reflects its ties to mainland China and its role in international commerce. Cantonese is the mother tongue of approximately 90 percent of the population. Putonghua supports mainland integration, while English supports international business and academic exchange.

The goal of biliteracy and trilingualism combines these needs. Biliteracy means reading and writing in Chinese and English. Trilingualism means speaking Cantonese, Putonghua and English. Schools must work towards those abilities while also ensuring that students understand the subjects they study.

Since the handover, Chinese medium teaching has been promoted as a way to support mother tongue learning and national integration. Expanding English instruction brings concerns about weakening Chinese language education and cultural connection, particularly given the historical role of EMI schools as routes to Western universities and international careers rather than local institutions.

Restrictions on English exposure, meanwhile, can limit access to global academic resources, international employment and research networks. Cambridge research observes that some policies "in some respects run counter" to the government's stated language goals, because restrictions reduce exposure to English during years important for language development.

The review must address those competing priorities through decisions about classroom practice and school eligibility. Its central task is to support understanding, Chinese language development and stronger English preparation within the same secondary education system.

Education Hub Plans Raise the Stakes

Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu has set out plans to develop Hong Kong into a regional higher education destination. Several highly ranked universities provide a foundation for efforts to attract overseas talent and students from across Asia and beyond.

Local students capable of studying in English are part of that ambition. International students also expect environments where they can use English inside and outside classrooms. The secondary system therefore matters to both the preparation of Hong Kong graduates and the city's attractiveness to families arriving from abroad.

The division between EMI and CMI schools could weaken those efforts by leaving graduates with insufficient English preparation and limiting consistent access to education in English for international families. The Council of Subsidised Secondary Schools links its call for reform to this wider education strategy.

The 2028-29 to 2033-34 window allows time for gradual changes, teacher recruitment and training, and school preparation. A phased approach could reduce disruption for current students while giving institutions time to adapt.

The bureau intends to draw on the HKU study and education sector feedback when considering the existing eligibility threshold. The results will help shape a decision with consequences beyond school labels: how students understand their lessons, how teachers deliver them, and how well graduates manage the move into higher education.

The Essentials

• Hong Kong plans its first major review of secondary school language policy since the 2010 adjustments, covering the 2028-29 to 2033-34 academic years.
• HKU has completed three academic years of data collection in three representative schools and is analysing the findings.
• Currently, 114 government and subsidised schools qualify for English medium instruction through the 85 percent intake threshold and top 40 percent performance requirement.
• Other schools teach mainly in Chinese, with English extended learning activities or up to two subjects taught in English.
• Hong Kong ranks 39th globally and third in Asia in the English Proficiency Index after four consecutive years of decline.
• Educators want stronger preparation for universities where English dominates teaching, research and academic collaboration.
• Teacher training and carefully planned use of Cantonese, Putonghua and English are central to making changes work.
• The review must balance students' understanding, Chinese and English literacy, proficiency in three spoken languages, and Hong Kong's education hub ambitions.