CBSE introduces 3-language rule mid-session | ‘Children being treated like guinea pigs’: Delhi schools flag confusion
Principals warn of disruption, possible job losses for foreign language teachers, and lack of clarity on implementation
The move has come with little transition time, leaving schools to rework timetables, reassign teachers and reconsider language options mid-term. (Express Photo) Just weeks into the new academic session, teachers and parents of students studying in Delhi schools were left to grapple with a new directive of the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) mandating that a third language will be introduced in Class 9 from this July. This, the schools said, would eventually force students to drop a foreign language and begin to learn an Indian language afresh mid-session.
The move, which extends the three-language formula to the secondary stage, has come with little transition time, leaving schools to rework timetables, reassign teachers and reconsider language options mid-term.
While the Board has mandated in a May 15 circular that two of the three languages have to be Indian, many schools said the practical outcome is a shift towards Hindi, English and Sanskrit, given constraints of staff and resources.
“It’s a little too late in the session. We have already covered two to three lessons, and now suddenly we are being asked to change everything,” said Mallika Preman, Principal of Tagore International School in East of Kailash.
“There are students who have not studied Sanskrit at all… how do we bring them to the same level? There is a lot of ambiguity, and it is very ill-timed,” she added, pointing to the practical challenges the schools now face.
A principal from a Dwarka-based school, requesting anonymity, said the sudden disruption has also upended earlier assurances given to staff.
“Earlier, when a third language was made mandatory from Class 6, I told my foreign language teachers not to worry… ‘you have four years… you can sit for CTET (Central Teacher Eligibility Test) and BEd’… since most of them have diplomas from institutes like Goethe. Now, what do I tell them? We might be forced to lay them off immediately,” the principal added.
“We took part in exchange programmes, cultural collaborations and language-led activities that made learning meaningful. All of that now will be cancelled. What message are we giving the students? We are so helpless. We can’t do anything,” the principal said.
Foreign language teachers, meanwhile, are at a loss. “Foreign languages have been removed. Sanskrit will be taught, no doubt… this is going to be a problem for everyone,” said Aruna Sivaraj, Principal at Himalaya Public Senior Secondary School at Rohini.
She noted that many students who have studied French or Spanish for years are now being asked to switch.
“Most schools have been teaching these languages. I don’t know how this is being made mandatory all of a sudden,” she said.
Further, school principals pointed out that now, teaching Class 7 and Class 8 students two Indian languages will become a necessity, as teaching a foreign language, only to drop it later, will prove detrimental in the long run.
“There is no clarity even on whether English is to be treated as a foreign or native language,” said Pallavi Sharma, Principal of Mamta Modern Senior Secondary School in Vikaspuri, and a recipient of the National Teachers’ Award 2024.
“All our books, the Constitution, even higher courts function in English. Now, we are being told two languages must be native to India… what exactly will this mean in practice?” she asked. Sharma said schools are still trying to interpret the directive.
Aparajita Gautam, Delhi Parents Association president said, “Parents are panicking. They are not able to process the sudden changes.
Children are being treated like guinea pigs by CBSE and then the same people ask why children are under so much stress,” she said. “It has been done suddenly. There is no vision,” she added.
A parent, representing a South Delhi parents’ group, said, “We are unhappy that foreign languages are being dropped. It becomes very difficult when a child moves from one city to another. This will also not help families that do not live in their home states, and it is hard to teach if parents themselves don’t know the language.”
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