The new educational framework from CBSE, unveiled on Thursday, indicates that beginning in the 2026-27 academic year, a third language will become compulsory for students in Class 6. All students will be required to learn a minimum of two Indian languages, paving the way for the board to mandate a third language as a core subject in the Class 10 board exams starting in 2031.
The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 advocates that students should achieve proficiency in three languages by the end of Class 10, in contrast to the present system, where only two languages are studied.
CBSE Chairman Rahul Singh told the Indian Express that while the third language, or R3, is not yet compulsory for Class 9, “R3-level textbooks will be introduced in Class 6 this year. They will write their board exams in 2031, and that's when the entire scheme will change, and the three-language formula will be entirely implemented,” he stated during the launch of CBSE's updated secondary curriculum.
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A source told the Indian Express that students will be expected to learn at least two Indian languages under the three-language strategy, which implies that those taking the Class 10 board examinations in 2031 may not opt to take the exam in both English and a foreign language as their second or third language. This is due to the new classification of English as a foreign language, which permits only one foreign language, the source elucidated.
With this new curriculum, the board will also mandate art education, vocational training, and physical education for classes 9 and 10. New textbooks will be released for art and physical education. During the current academic year, Class 10 students will complete school-based assessments in art and physical education. By the 2027-28 academic year, vocational education will become a required subject with annual or board exams, while art and physical education will still be evaluated through internal school assessments.
Furthermore, computational thinking and artificial intelligence will be introduced as mandatory subjects for classes 9 and 10. These will be rolled out as modules with internal assessments in the ongoing academic session and will become a compulsory board exam subject for Class 10 by 2029. These subjects are also being conducted for classes 3 to 8 during this current academic year.
The language conditions have been eased for educational institutions abroad; they are permitted to provide one mandatory language that is native to India instead of the two Indian languages required for schools situated within India.
The curriculum emphasises the instructions from a CBSE circular released last year, asserting that schools are obliged to include at least one Indian native language as a choice for the medium of instruction from the early education phase through to Class 12.
Additionally, the Board will introduce Dogri, Maithili, Konkani, and Santhali as language options in Class 9 for the ongoing academic year. Consequently, the Board will now present all 22 scheduled languages as choices.
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