CBSE Language Policy Relief
Supreme Court Directs CBSE to Give Class 6 Students Language Policy Relief
Anonymous
The Supreme Court directed CBSE to give current Class 6 students the same transition-year relief as Class 7 students under its three-language policy, despite the Centre’s request to implement the policy for them this year. Class 6 students will study a third language, but it will be assessed internally without a pass-or-fail consequence, and they will not have to sit a Class 10 board exam in it. The ruling also allows students already studying two non-native languages to keep that combination and add a Bharatiya Bhasha as their third language. The broader challenge to the policy remains before the Court, while mandatory implementation for this cohort is deferred until the 2027-28 academic year.
Key Points
1
The challenge was brought by Class 9 and 10 students and targets CBSE Circular No. Acad-33/2026, which advanced the policy’s start to July 1, 2026, requiring students to study three languages, at least two of them native Indian languages.
2
Before issuing the direction, the Court had urged the Union to reconsider making the policy optional for the current academic year, citing the logistical strain of enforcing the requirement mid-term on young children and their families.
3
The Centre argued that about 99% of CBSE schools had facilities to implement the third-language policy and that only roughly 1.2% of schools were affected; it also warned that students moving into Class 7 without taking up the policy could face the same problem later.
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