The teachers have until the end of August to file a successful application for exemption based on alternative qualifications if they are to continue teaching English. Despite a petition from educators in February, the Education and Manpower Bureau indicated there will be no extension of the deadline, although teachers can resume teaching if they pass tests in the future.

Hong Kong Alliance of Parents Association chairwoman Chan Siu-chu said teachers who have not passed the grade should not continue teaching the language.

"From a parent's point of view, those teachers [who failed] should not be allowed to teach English."

Chan was also sad on hearing the news about the low pass rate.

"These teachers have also come through our education system, and it is an unhappy indicator of our system."

Pauline Chow Lo-sai, chairwoman of the Joint English Teacher's Circle, was also unsympathetic with those who failed, saying teachers must practice what they preach.

"This is an exam, and this was the final one, so they should have prepared properly," she said.

"There should be a deadline, and you cannot keep extending it," she added, noting that teachers had five years to prepare for the exam.

Education-sector lawmaker and Professional Teachers' Union chairman Cheung Man-kwong said it is too harsh to disqualify teachers based on the exam.

This year, candidates found the oral part of the test most difficult, with slightly less than 30 percent achieving a pass mark. Just over 38 percent passed the written section, traditionally considered the most difficult part of the exam.

The results were from the test that 1,196 teachers took earlier this year. Hong Kong's estimated 12,400 English-language teachers are required to reach the proficiency level, although some have been given exemptions. An estimated 1,544 have yet to reach the required level.

"School heads are advised to review again their staff deployment plans to ensure that all serving English-language teachers have attained the language proficiency requirement in the 2006-2007 year," a bureau spokesman said.

The Examinations and Assessment Authority Monday was less scathing about the candidates' performance compared with last year but noted that there were common deficiencies in grammar.

"Common problem areas included tense, subject-verb agreement, relative pronouns, voice, connectives, pronoun reference, word classes and prepositions," the authority said in an analysis. "[Candidates] do not have the necessary metalanguage to be able to classify errors, nor explain their causes and solutions."

The report also suggested that a lack of confidence may have been the cause for the poor marks in the oral section.

"Some candidates did not really engage in interaction at all; they simply said what they had prepared and then stopped. This suggests a lack of familiarity with discursive practices in English, a deficiency which can only be rectified through greater exposure to, and participation in, discussions on professional issues."

Teachers are required to pass papers in reading, writing, listening and speaking.

The scheme has provoked controversy since former chief executive Tung Chee-hwa proposed it in his first policy address. The 75,000-strong Professional Teachers' Union boycotted the first tests in 2001, saying it was an insult to their profession.

While education groups say the tests are unfair and detached from the realities of classroom teaching, parent associations support the tests as an indicator of teaching quality and are concerned by the results.

In general, only a third of the candidates pass the written test. In December, a report by the authority criticized candidates' grammar and vague explanations for common mistakes. "Many answers displayed a lack of understanding of English grammar," it said.

"In short, many candidates simply did not demonstrate an ability to discuss language matters in a professional context."

Teachers have criticized the exam's structure. All the tests are standard and do not take into account the fact that a band-three teacher or a primary-school teacher may require other qualities apart from an ability to explain grammatical constructions, they argue.

Top candidates teaching at the exclusive Diocesan Girls Junior School said the test was too hard, the listening section too fast, and unrealistic in expecting teachers to explain grammar to children using linguistic jargon.

A report released by Permanent Secretary for Education and Manpower Fanny Law Fan Chiu-fun to educators in December, revealed that only 19 percent of serving primary teachers passed the written paper, sparking concerns that a teacher shortage was imminent in primary schools.

A bureau spokesman tried to allay such fears Monday: "By the end of the 2005-2006 school year, the vast majority of schools will have an adequate number of [language proficiency requirement]-met English language teachers while only a few schools will need to employ one to two new English- language teachers for the coming year.

"With a steady supply of 266 prospective English-language teachers who will graduate from the local teacher education institutes, there will be an adequate number of LPR-met English language teachers available."