New Delhi: When a teenage student from Delhi decided to study German as her third language in school, her parents were concerned about whether she could cope.
As it turned out, she performed well in the language and decided to continue studying it in ninth and tenth grades too. But her hopes seem to have been dashed.
Now that she has entered ninth grade at her school in southwest Delhi, she has been asked to switch to Sanskrit, a language she has never studied before.
“I have not once studied Sanskrit, but now suddenly everybody expects us to study Sanskrit. I don’t even know the S of Sanskrit!” she told ThePrint.
She is not a one-off case. Across India, lakhs of students, parents and foreign-language teachers have been left in the lurch following the Central Board of Secondary Education’s (CBSE) 15 May circular, making it mandatory for ninth-grade students to study three languages from 1 July, two of which need to be Indian native languages.
The problem arises from two CBSE circulars issued this year to implement the three-language formula under the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020. The first circular issued on 9 April introduced the framework for sixth-grade students from the 2026-27 academic session. The second 15 May circular extended it to the current batch of ninth-grade students from 1 July.
Until recently, students in most CBSE schools studied three languages up to eighth grade, which would usually be Hindi and English, along with a third language. Students could choose from Sanskrit, French, German or Japanese. Many students who opted for foreign languages continued them in secondary school while dropping Hindi.
The May circular changes that arrangement. Students who have spent years learning foreign languages are now required to drop them and study two Indian languages instead, leaving little time to adapt to the new requirements.
ThePrint reached out to CBSE chairman Prashant Lokhande’s office for comment via email, but did not receive a response. This report will be updated if and when he responds.
But the government has made its stand clear in the past.
Union Minister for Education Dharmendra Pradhan, while addressing the 56th anniversary of Thuglak magazine in Chennai on 14 January, said that the three-language formula of NEP 2020 does not weaken the mother tongue or the regional languages of students but rather “protects it and then expands opportunity”.
Last August, while answering a question in the Rajya Sabha, Pradhan said that the “three-language formula will continue to be implemented while keeping in mind the Constitutional provisions, aspirations of the people, regions, and the Union, and the need to promote multilingualism as well as promote national unity”.
He also clarified that no language shall be imposed on any state, region or student as long as two of the languages are Indian native languages.
Parents are knocking at the Supreme Court’s door
Several parents of students in Delhi have now approached the Supreme Court for redressal. For many, the issue isn’t about opposition to Indian languages but the way the policy has been implemented.
Parents have filed multiple petitions, including a PIL on 21 May, before the Supreme Court challenging the CBSE decision to implement the revised three-language formula from ninth grade during the 2026-2027 academic session.
The petitioners argue that the 15 May circular implemented the three-language formula abruptly, reversing the school board’s earlier plan.
The first circular on 9 April said the three-language formula would be implemented from sixth grade starting from the 2026-2027 batch, which suggested that this requirement would only be applied in ninth grade in the 2029-2030 academic session.
Parents say that if implemented, the change will leave students, parents, and schools little time to prepare.
The Supreme Court on 27 May decided to examine if the CBSE’s three-language formula would put extra pressure on students. A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant along with Justice Joymalya Baghchi and Justice Vipul M. Pancholi will next hear the PIL in July.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court issued notices to the Central government, CBSE as well as NCERT, seeking a comprehensive response to the implementation of the three-language formula.
On Thursday, the apex court refused interim relief to Friends of People for Active Democracy in its challenge to the CBSE’s three-language policy implementation from ninth grade during the 2026-27 academic session.
The bench tagged the plea with similar pending petitions for hearing on 14 July.
Majority of the parents, students and teachers ThePrint reached out to said they were uncomfortable coming on record as it was a “sensitive matter”.
Parents expressed concern that the switch would increase the academic burden as it will come after students currently in ninth grade have already made their language choices for this year.
Nidhi Sharma, whose daughter is in eighth grade in a Delhi school, told ThePrint the new requirement effectively asks students to abandon years of language learning and start from scratch. She said this is bound to increase the academic burden for students.
“If my child has been studying German from fourth grade till eighth grade and is now required to drop it, they will suddenly have to study Sanskrit, a language they have never learned before,” she said.
One parent, who is not originally from Delhi but has settled there, told ThePrint that her child had struggled with Hindi and chose to continue studying a foreign language in ninth grade. “Now he will have to study Hindi as well as Sanskrit in school. The level playing field has been taken away from children like him.”
Parents also questioned how schools would implement the policy when teaching resources were not yet in place.
“The books are not even published. They are asking our children in ninth grade to study from sixth-grade books. If the resources are not ready, how are they forcing this on our children?” one parent said.
Parents also said that the move has also hit the students’ academic planning for the future.
Dropping a foreign language they have studied over a period of years will affect students preparing for international certification courses in foreign languages, exchange programmes, as well as higher education opportunities abroad.
Several parents, including those from Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) backgrounds, say that while more affluent families can arrange private tuitions, students without access to such resources will be at a greater disadvantage.
Some said the court proceedings have given students some hope.
“The children are upset and confused,” one parent said. “But they felt better when they learned that the matter is before the court. They are hoping the judgment will go in their favour.”
Is English now a foreign language?
Another key issue raised was the treatment of English under the new framework.
English will be considered a foreign language rather than a native Indian language, even though it is one of India’s official languages. This reclassification will force students to pick English as their third foreign language.
Previously, English was counted as one of the two required Indian languages. But students will now need to learn English as their third language, which falls under the foreign language category.
Rama Kant Agnihotri, former professor and head of the Department of Linguistics at the University of Delhi, raised concerns about this decision.
“English occupies a unique position in India. It is an associate official language, the language of higher courts, higher education, administration and a significant part of professional life. How can it be treated as a foreign language?” he asked.
Parents argue that the new framework’s implementation has produced a different outcome.
In many schools in north India, where options for regional Indian languages are limited, students are effectively left with Hindi and Sanskrit as the two Indian languages, while English becomes the only non-Indian language they can continue studying.
Madhu Prasad, a retired professor from the Department of Philosophy at Zakir Husain Delhi College, University of Delhi, told ThePrint that the original intent behind the three-language formula was an emphasis on the mother tongue as the language of learning. Then the students can choose other languages according to their choices.
“The present framework has replaced that flexibility with compulsion. The current three-language formula is foisting Hindi and Sanskrit on you and restricting choices,” she added.
Foreign language teachers face uncertain future
Foreign-language teachers say the CBSE circular has been a blow to them.
The revised language formula has created deep uncertainty about the future of foreign language programmes that many schools have spent years developing.
Several schools are now reviewing whether to continue offering foreign languages in middle grades if students will eventually be required to switch to an Indian language.
As a result, concerns about staffing have begun to emerge. Some teachers have been asked whether they can take up skill-based subjects or administrative work, while part-time faculty in certain schools have reportedly been told to wait until there is greater clarity on the policy and the ongoing legal challenge before classes are assigned.
A teacher in a CBSE-affiliated school told ThePrint that students in his school begin learning foreign languages as early as fourth grade. This means they spend many years learning the foreign languages and then decide in ninth grade whether they want to continue with Hindi or a foreign language in secondary school.
“This policy has taken away the choices of both parents and students,” he said.
Nidhi, a German teacher in a well-known Delhi school, said the change had also created anxiety about jobs and long-term career stability.
“After giving 20-odd years to an organisation, you are told, even if not directly, that we don’t have any positions that you can fill in anymore. It is a big, dramatic, anxious and panicky situation from my perspective,” the teacher said.
Challenges galore for schools
Schools also say they are facing many practical challenges in implementing the policy.
A principal at a school in Gurugram told ThePrint that it was challenging to find enough Hindi and Sanskrit teachers on short notice for sixth and ninth-grade students.
A Sanskrit teacher, who has been teaching in a Delhi school for the last decade, said that out of around 250 students in ninth grade, only around 16 currently study Sanskrit.
“If the policy is implemented, then I might be expected to teach the entire batch at least in the beginning while the school hires new teachers. All of them will be coming from different levels,” she said, adding that managing such a transition would be difficult without additional resources and teachers.
Even teachers, who support the promotion of Indian languages, question the timing of the move.
“I am a nationalist,” one foreign language teacher said. “But if Indian languages are to be strengthened, they should be introduced much earlier in a child’s education rather than in the middle of secondary school.”
The case for the three-language formula
The new policy’s supporters said its main aim was to strengthen multilingualism and ensure that native Indian languages become a core part of CBSE’s school education all over the country.
Mamidala Jagadesh Kumar, former UGC chairman, has argued that the current debate about the language implementation should be seen in the wider context of preserving India’s linguistic diversity.
Kumar wrote in an article for ThePrint that this policy’s key aim was to ensure that native Indian languages remained central to school education, which promotes multilingualism in the classrooms. He added that the framework did not ban studying foreign languages, but it prioritised Indian languages.
Dr. Aditi Narula, a parent, said she was confident the government would ensure that the necessary resources are made available quickly.
“It is important for our children to be in touch with their cultural roots, which this three-language policy will ensure,” she said.
“We cannot decide what our child will do in the future, so studying one language cannot decide their future,” she added.
Linguists question the policy’s premise
Agnihotri said the debate goes beyond implementation and reflects a flawed understanding of multilingualism itself. “Multilingualism cannot be reduced to the study of three separate languages. Each classroom is already multilingual.”
According to Agnihotri, children come to school with diverse linguistic repertoires and routinely switch between multiple languages.
“They talk of multilingualism in terms of L1 plus L2 plus L3 (Language 1 + Language 2 + Language 3). But each of these languages is itself a mixture of many languages,” he said.
Pritha Chandra, professor of Theoretical Linguistics and Cognitive Science at IIT Delhi, said the policy risks deepening linguistic inequalities.
“The focus on a few selected languages will increase linguistic disparity, leading to a greater sense of social isolation among young speakers who belong to unscheduled, non-standard and minority linguistic communities,” she told ThePrint.
She also questioned whether mandating three languages would necessarily improve proficiency. “The attempt to ‘teach’ three languages will most likely fail to create linguistically proficient speakers, able to communicate efficiently in all three languages.”
(Edited by Sugita Katyal)
Also Read: BJP’s Annamalai breaks ranks, opposes Modi govt’s mid-session rollout of 3-language formula