How CBSE's Three-Language Policy and Textbook Delays Are Affecting Class IX Students
Shillpi A Singh | 23 September 2026 | The Wire
There is something almost Shakespearean about the academic year Class IX students have been handed in 2026. The year began with much ado about languages.
On April 9, CBSE issued a notification stating that R3, the third language, would not apply at the Class IX level until the 2029–30 academic session. Barely five weeks later, on May 15, it issued another circular requiring Class IX students to study three languages from July 1, with at least two being Indian languages. The abrupt change left students, parents and schools scrambling to understand what it meant for children already in the system. It eventually led to a legal challenge.
Parents (like me) raised a fairly simple question: why should children already in classes VII to IX become collateral participants in a policy transition introduced after their academic journey and their choice of a foreign language had already begun in Class VI?
On June 29, CBSE issued detailed guidelines on the three-language policy and provided transition arrangements for existing students of Classes VII–IX. There was some relief, at least for those of us who had spent weeks trying to make sense of the policy.
But alongside the language-policy maze, another problem was quietly gathering: the textbooks.