The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has formally introduced the three-language policy, making the study of three languages compulsory for students from Class 9 onwards, beginning July 1.
However, the Board clarified that there would be no board exam for the third language (R3) opted by the students in Class X, news agency ANI reported. The assessments for this language would be school-based and internal. The board said this was to keep the focus on learning and reduce any undue pressure on students.
The CBSE further said that schools may offer any language from the CBSE list of subjects, provided that at least two of these three chosen languages are “native Indian languages”.
What the CBSE circular says
The CBSE circular issued on May 5 said that at least two of the three languages must be native Indian languages, in accordance with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 and the National Curriculum Framework for School Education (NCF-SE) 2023.
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 said that no student would be barred from appearing for the Class 10 Board examinations because of R3.
English – Foreign or native language?
The CBSE has said that foreign languages can only be studied as the third language if the other two are Indian languages, or as an optional fourth language.
Explaining the implementation of the three-language formula, Sudha Acharya, principal of a Delhi-based school, said there are 44 languages in the CBSE’s list of language subjects including 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.
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.
Regarding the transition, CBSE said Class 9 students would temporarily use Class 6 R3 textbooks for the chosen language, until secondary stage textbooks are made available.
The board also asked schools to update their R3 language offerings for Classes 6 to 9 on the OASIS portal by June 30.
