The boy is one of two Form Seven students who studied towards A-levels for more than 16 months at YMCA college before they were informed on January 12 that they weren't allowed to take the exams.

'I was brought into a room with another boy and we were told that we were not eligible to take our A-level exams because we hadn't got a second language Hong Kong Certificate of Education Exam or equivalent,' Rory said.

'I felt everything was just collapsing on top of me. All my hopes of studying at university were dashed. I am ranked second in my class and I've been working very hard for 16 months towards my A-levels.

'I want to study English and journalism at university. Without Chinese language, my options are limited in Hong Kong and I always planned to study in the UK. I am expected to have three full A-levels.'

To sit the Hong Kong A-level, students are required by the exams authority to have English and Chinese or alternative languages at Grade E or above in the HKCEE - or an equivalent like the International General Certificate of Secondary Education.

Rory's mother, Suki Fong, said he joined YMCA college in September 2008 after taking IGCSEs at Sha Tin College, which belongs to the English Schools Foundation. The Tung Chung school had agreed at the admissions interview that he would take A-levels in English language, English literature and geography.

Fong said she told the teacher that Rory did not have an IGCSE in Chinese both in the interview and at a subsequent meeting about his scholarship application where she handed over his exam certificates.

'At no point during these meetings did he ever mention that a second language was required to sit the Hong Kong A-levels,' she said. 'If it had been, Rory could have sat the IGCSE in Chinese at the school last year. I am absolutely astounded that a school can accept a student without following the Hong Kong A-level prerequisites.'

During the autumn term, the teenager also found out that the English language course he was following was leading to an AS-level in the Use of English, which is only worth half an A-level. It meant he would not have enough A-levels to matriculate.

So in January last year he began an A-level course in business studies and made up for the months of missed coursework by swatting up on other students' notes that had been photocopied by the teacher.

Fong said that in July last year a teacher did finally mention the need for a second language exam at HKCEE level and Rory sent copies of his certificates to the school - but had received no reply.

In September last year he raised the matter with his form teacher, who sent him to the head of the international curriculum. Rory asked whether he needed the Chinese IGCSE if he was going to university in the UK, but was told that he did not.

'I think it is appalling that even when Rory was alerted to the potential problem and gave his certificates to the school, nothing was done about it,' she said. 'Surely this was an incident where they should have contacted the parent?'

Alfred Chan How-kei, head of the local curriculum at YMCA college, said: 'Students sometimes can join our school without all the prerequisites. Some students have sat the HKCEE and failed and we ask them to sit it again the next year.

'But Form Six students are advised to do it on their own.'

The school would register a student who did not have a second language at HKCEE for the A-level and then write to the Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority on their behalf and appeal for leniency.

'In the past they have accepted some students after we made a special request for exemption from the regulations,' he said.

Chan said the school had been negotiating with the HKEAA on behalf of the two boys and was told in December that the cases would be reviewed. But the authority had replied in January that the students could not be exempted.

Chan said he had checked with the teachers involved and they had said they were aware of the language requirement and had advised Rory to take the exam.

A spokeswoman for the HKEAA said it would not comment on individual cases.

Professor Lam Chi-cheung, an expert in curriculum and instruction at the Hong Kong Institute of Education, said many schools accepted children of permanent residents returning to Hong Kong and got them to take IGCSE Chinese in Form Six.

'If students fail to do it, the school should warn the student and the parents that they will not be able to take the A-level exam,' he said. 'If I were the school principal, I would inform them before the start of Form Seven.'

All for nothing

Number of months Rory Fong studied before being told he could not sit exams: 16