CBSE Makes Three Languages Mandatory for Classes 9 and 10, Drops Board Exam for Third Language

CBSE has officially implemented the three-language policy and from July 1, students from Class 9 will have to study three languages.

The Board, however, clarified that there would not be a board examination for the third language (R3) chosen by the students in Class X, news agency ANI reported. This language would be assessed as a school and internal. This is because the focus is on learning and there will be no undue pressure on students," the board said.

While adding that at least two of the three languages selected by the school should be “native Indian languages”, CBSE stated that the schools can use any language from the CBSE list of languages.

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CBSE circular states that:

In keeping with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 and the National Curriculum Framework for School Education (NCF-SE) 2023, at least two of the three languages have to be native Indian languages, the CBSE circular said.

Regarding the assessments for the third language, the circular stated, “All assessments for R3 shall be entirely school-based and internal. The performance of students in R3 will be duly reflected in the CBSE certificate.” It stated that it would not let a student miss the Class 10 Board exams on R3 grounds.

English – Foreign or native language?

If a third language is being studied, it must be a foreign language, after two Indian languages, or as an optional fourth language, the CBSE has stated.

Principal Sudha Acharya of one of the schools in the English medium city of Delhi explained about the implementation of the three language formula and said CBSE has a list of 44 languages ranging from English and Hindi.

“If a school is offering, say, Urdu at R1 level and Hindi, Tamil or any other native language at R2 level, students can opt for foreign languages like French or German as the third language, since two languages are already native to India,” Acharya said.

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What about English?

“If English is taken at R1 or R2, a foreign language cannot be chosen as R3. English is not a foreign language but is also not native to India. Schools can offer foreign languages as a fourth language through reading clubs,” she added.

As for the switch, CBSE stated that the selected language would be covered using the textbooks of class 6 R3 textbooks for the period of time until the textbooks for secondary stage were available.

The board has also directed schools to ensure that their R3 Language programme for Classes 6 to 9 is updated on OASIS by June 30.

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