Supreme Court to Hear Petition Against CBSE's Tri-Language Policy for 9th Grade Students Next Week
The Supreme Court will hear a petition challenging the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE)'s new policy making the study of three languages mandatory for 9th grade students next week. The petition has been filed by parents and teachers from New Delhi, Gurgaon, Noida, and Chennai.
Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi mentioned the case before a bench comprising Chief Justice Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi, and Justice Vipul M. Pancholi. He argued that the sudden implementation of this rule would affect students' preparation for the 10th grade board examinations and impose an undue academic burden on them.
Rohatgi contended that students who have been studying only two languages until now would suddenly have to learn an additional language at the 9th grade level and take an exam for it in the 10th grade, leading to confusion and academic chaos among students. Taking note of the arguments, the bench stated that the matter would be listed for hearing next week. This challenge is related to a circular issued by CBSE on May 15, which aligns the 'study plan' with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 and the National Curriculum Framework for School Education (NCF-SE) 2023.
Under the revised framework, studying three languages will be mandatory for students entering 9th grade from July 1, 2026, with at least two being Indian languages. A foreign language option can only be chosen if the other two languages are Indian, or it can be taken as an additional fourth subject. According to the petitioners, this policy is entirely different from a notification issued by CBSE on April 9, 2026, which postponed the requirement for a third language at the 9th grade level until the academic session 2029-30.
The petition claims that the sudden implementation of this policy will impose additional academic burdens on students who are already preparing for board examinations, while schools lack infrastructure, trained teachers, and adequate study materials. It alleges that directing 9th grade students to rely on 6th grade level textbooks to learn an additional language reflects inadequacies in teaching methods, rather than any meaningful language knowledge. The petition also expresses concern about the disproportionate impact of this policy on students from non-Hindi speaking states and points out the absence of a clear assessment framework for the newly introduced third language.
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