New Delhi: The Central Board of Secondary Education’s (CBSE’s) directive asking all its affiliated schools to map students’ mother tongues and realign their teaching material accordingly before the end of the summer break has sent school principals across India into a tizzy. Many of them have outright said it is impossible in the time frame.
The CBSE last week released a public circular in which it asked all its affiliated schools to chart students’ mother tongues, and by the end of the summer break (first week of July) realign the curriculum and teaching material so that a student’s mother tongue (or a familiar regional or state language) is used as the medium of instruction for them.
The board has also asked schools to complete teachers’ orientation and training workshops before the implementation begins, focusing on multilingual pedagogy, classroom strategies, and language-sensitive assessment. While the board has emphasised that the implementation may commence from July, schools might be given extra time if needed.
The move is in line with the National Education Policy 2020 and National Curriculum Framework 2023 which emphasises the use of the mother tongue as the medium of instruction at the foundational level and the structured introduction of additional languages through a multilingual approach.
Several school principals in the national capital said they have students from diverse linguistic backgrounds. “We’ve already shared a Google Form with parents to collect information about the mother tongues of their children. Our student population includes children from states like Kerala, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, and Haryana,” said the principal of a South Delhi CBSE-affiliated school, who did not want to be named.
“We’re unsure how we can narrow it down to a single language, and it’s practically impossible to teach in multiple languages in one classroom. Currently, we use both English and Hindi at the foundational level for pre-primary to class 2, and we may continue with that approach because everyone knows one of these two languages at least,” the principal said.
Schools also say the circular is confusing. “The circular states that the medium of instruction should be the students’ mother tongues, but it doesn’t clarify whether assessments will also be conducted in the mother tongue. While NCERT has released foundational-level textbooks in various languages, we don’t have teachers trained to teach in all those languages,” said the principal of a CBSE-affiliated school in Gautam Buddha Nagar in UP.
ThePrint reached CBSE Director of Academics Pragya M Singh via messages and calls seeking clarity on the circular. This report will be updated when she responds.
What does the CBSE say?
The board has stated that at the foundational level—which includes pre-primary to Class 2—children should be taught in their home language, mother tongue, or a familiar regional language, referred to as R1. Ideally, R1 should be the child’s mother tongue. If that’s not practical, the state language can be used, as long as it is familiar to the child.
At the preparatory stage (Classes 3 to 5), the board says students may continue learning in R1 (mother tongue or familiar regional language) or they may be given the option to study in a different medium, referred to as R2.
In classes 1 and 2, students study two languages, and mathematics. Which means students have to be taught mathematics in their mother tongue now. In classes 3 to 5, more subjects are taught. The NCERT has over the last two years released e-versions of these textbooks in multiple Indian scheduled languages.
“This is not just a curricular shift—it is a pedagogical commitment to India’s linguistic and cultural diversity and unity,” the board said in the circular.
The CBSE has asked schools to submit monthly progress reports to it, starting from July. “Schools may also be visited by academic observers for support and guidance,” it states.
Challenges involved in implementation
Kulbhushan Sharma, President of the National Independent Schools Association (NISA), which represents budget private schools, said there is a need to assess teachers’ knowledge of languages before implementing such policies.
“How can teachers be expected to learn multiple languages or be trained in new languages during the summer vacation? It is also impractical to hire multiple teachers for the same subject just based on language proficiency. Teacher recruitment must take these factors into account before implementing this policy,” he said.
A principal of a CBSE-affiliated school in Gurugram said that this policy may promote Hindi as a medium of instruction alongside English. “This is because the majority of teachers are only proficient in these two languages. Since the circular states that a ‘familiar language’ can be considered as R1, it will mostly be Hindi in Delhi, the NCR region, and across northern states such as Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, and Rajasthan. How will this promote linguistic diversity?” the principal asked, speaking to ThePrint.
The principal of a CBSE-affiliated school in Navi Mumbai added that many parents choose private schools precisely because they offer English-medium instruction. “It’s not as if there’s a shortage of Marathi-medium schools in Mumbai. If parents wanted that, they would have opted for those schools already,” the principal noted.
Different interpretations
Experts raised concerns over the lack of clarity in implementation. Ameeta Mulla Wattal, educationist and Chairperson of the DLF Foundation Schools and Scholarship Programs, said that many schools are interpreting the circular based on their own perspectives.
She emphasised the need for clear guidance from the board, stating, “The CBSE should conduct workshops to guide educators on how to effectively integrate the mother tongue in classrooms. The board has done this before for many policies, and it should be done again before hastily implementing it,” Wattal said.
For instance, Sudha Acharya, principal of ITL Public School in Dwarka, Delhi, shared her school’s proactive approach. She said, “Over 20 languages have been identified as the mother tongues of the students enrolled in my school. The mapping also revealed that Hindi is the most commonly spoken language. We are already incorporating Hindi and English into the teaching-learning process at the foundational level.”
She further explained how the school is addressing linguistic diversity. “We have created language trees for some of these languages so that students can learn a few words in each language, even if it is not their mother tongue. We have also designated the next 10 months to the 20 languages our students speak.”
Regarding assessment policies, Acharya clarified the school’s stance. “There are no exams in classes 1 and 2. For classes 3 to 5, we don’t need to conduct exams in the students’ mother tongues. The policy only emphasises teaching in the mother tongue to help students better grasp the concepts.”
However, principals expressed confusion about how the medium of instruction could differ from the medium of assessment.
“Won’t it be unfair to teach students in their mother tongue and take exams in English, which will be the case in the majority of private schools affiliated with CBSE? In government schools affiliated with the board, the case is different since most are Hindi or regional,” said the Navi Mumbai principal quoted above.
Tania Joshi, principal of The Indian School, said that her school has also shared a Google Form with parents for language mapping. “We have students from various states having different mother tongues. However, the instructions are for teaching learning only and not assessment in mother tongue,” she said.
(Edited by Viny Mishra)
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Strange.. Are we getting to act like the TRUMP adminstration?
Which acts then takes U-turns later ?