The Limits of the CBSE’s Three-Language Mandate
Sushant Kishore, Navneet Sharma | 17 July 2026 | Deccan Herald
The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) is one of the world’s largest and most influential educational ecosystems. Governing over 28,000 affiliated schools and responsible for the academic destinies of millions of enrolled students, any shift within the board does not merely alter a syllabus; it ripples through India’s socio-economic fabric. In its recent directives, the board issued a sweeping mandate forcing a rigid three-language formula (in phases) onto Class IX students. Under this new framework, students must study three languages (R1, R2, R3). The caveat? At least two must be native Indian languages.
While the policy is framed in the noble discourse of “decolonisation” and “cultural rootedness”, it sets untenable expectations for young students at a crucial juncture of their careers and creates a constitutional paradox on the ground.