New Delhi, July 14: The Central Board of Secondary Education has made a third language mandatory as a qualifying subject for students in Classes 9 and 10 to align its syllabus with the National Education Policy. The updated curriculum structure will affect pupils entering Class 9 during the 2026-27 academic session and Class 10 in the 2027-28 school year. Under this system, the additional language will not feature in the external written board examinations.
“Students will instead be required to pass a school-based internal assessment to secure their final Secondary School Examination certificate,” a board representative stated in a circular published on July 10.
The directive establishes that while Class 9 students who do not pass the assessment can still move up to the next grade, they must clear the backlog the following year. For Class 10 pupils, clearing this evaluation, designated as R3, remains a strict requirement for receiving their passing certificates. If a student falls short, schools are mandated to conduct a reassessment before the central board outcomes are officially announced.
This updates a previous communication from June 29 which outlined the phased rollout of the three-language structure starting from Class 6. According to the framework, students must pick three languages, ensuring at least two are native Indian languages. Those currently taking a foreign language alongside English in Classes 7, 8, and 9 must now adopt an indigenous Indian language as well, altering the long-standing tradition where the third language ended after Class 8.
The swift implementation has faced legal pushback through a writ petition filed by Subhash Chand, which seeks a return to an April 9 directive that postponed the Class 9 language mandate until 2029-30. The Ministry of Education maintained in a counter-affidavit filed on July 13 that the transition is fully legally sound. The central ministry affirmed that since education resides on the Concurrent List of the Constitution, both central and state governments possess the legal authority to implement these educational reforms.
