Cloud on Arabic, Persian Courses as CBSE Language Policy Limits Enrolment Prospects
Basant Kumar Mohanty | 20 July 2026 | The Telegraph Online
The CBSE’s decision to reduce to one the number of foreign languages that students of Classes VI to X can study as part of their regular syllabus has cast a shadow over the undergraduate Arabic and Persian courses offered by several Indian universities.
If schoolchildren can study only one foreign language, they are likely to choose English. Students who have not studied Arabic or Persian at school are unlikely to elect to — or be prepared to — take up undergraduate courses in these languages, academics said.
While the Central Board of Secondary Education does allow students to take up a fourth language — which can be a foreign language — as an additional subject, few are expected to do so.
Until the last academic year, students of Classes VI to X could study two foreign languages. (Students from the current batches of Classes VII, VIII and IX who are already studying two foreign languages can continue to do so till Class X, the CBSE has clarified.)