Digvijaya Singh, head of the parliamentary standing committee on education, has urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to look into concerns raised by parents over the CBSE’s decision to implement a compulsory three-language policy for Class IX students from the current academic session.
Worried parents have written to the panel seeking the withdrawal of the decision.
Last month, the CBSE directed all its 33,000 affiliated schools to make the study of three languages "compulsory" for students of Class IX from July.
Currently, students of classes VI, VII and VIII have to learn English, Hindi and a third language, which can be an Indian language or a foreign language such as French or German.
Students of classes IX and X are taught English as the first language and one more language, which could be a foreign or an Indian language. Several Class IX students are pursuing French or German as a second language.
“The sudden enforcement of this policy mid-session — without adequate teachers, textbooks, or transition time — is likely to create serious disruption,” Singh wrote to the Prime Minister.
Singh cited the CBSE governing body’s endorsement of the curriculum committee’s recommendations that “schools continue with the existing scheme of studies especially with regard to language until the release of graded textbooks of languages by NCERT”.
“Despite its own Governing Body’s decision, the CBSE issued a circular on May 15, 2026, asking for implementation of 3rd language instruction in Grade-IX from 1st July 2026. The NCERT has not yet released graded textbooks of language and the CBSE has therefore recommended the use of NCERT’s Grade 6 textbooks. It is not clear how and why the CBSE has so evidently overturned its Governing Body’s decision and in a way that threatens the academic planning of thousands of schools across the country,” Singh wrote.
Singh argued that the move would create practical difficulties for students in the southern and north-eastern states where Hindi is not spoken. They cannot study local tribal languages that do not figure on the CBSE’s list of languages for Class IX. Sanskrit has emerged as a popular third-language choice, but there is a shortage of qualified teachers.
“Rising above all other considerations, my respectful recommendation is that the implementation of this policy for current Class IX students be put on hold immediately,” Singh wrote.
Several parents have moved the Supreme Court against this policy. The next hearing is on July 15, but schools would have started implementing the policy if not withdrawn by then.
In their appeal, a group of parents wrote to the panel that students had planned studies based on the earlier understanding that the policy would be introduced gradually from lower classes. The sudden extension of the policy to Class IX has disrupted academic planning and created uncertainty, they said.
They also voiced concern over increased academic pressure on students. They said the NCERT had already made subjects such as artificial intelligence and skill education mandatory, and another compulsory language would substantially raise the burden on students.
The parents said the new requirement might force students to give up French, Spanish, German, Japanese or other languages that they had been learning since Class VI.