Indian and foreign: On the CBSE and third language

📌 Summary:

• Controversy over introducing a third language from Class 6 stems from an unresolved contradiction in the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020
• NEP rightly stresses the special importance of English (in maths, science, legal education) and does not club it with "foreign" languages like French/Spanish — yet its three-language formula requires two Indian languages, effectively relegating English to "foreign" status
• CBSE implemented this: students in Classes 7, 8 and 9 were told to study three languages, two of them "Bharatiya" — forcing those who took, say, French to drop it for a new Indian language
• Risk: harms Class 10 Board performance and renders redundant the teaching resources schools built for foreign languages
• After backlash, CBSE relaxed rules: Classes 7-9 students who took English + a foreign language need add only one Bharatiya language, and the third language will not be tested in Class 10 Boards — but these are temporary; the three-language policy (two Bharatiya) from Class 6 continues
• Core argument: NEP itself places mother tongue and English on an equal footing for STEM, and values languages like Japanese/German for student "mobility"; the policy should serve students' best interests, not "atavistic relapses"
• Solution proposed: teach mother tongue and English, and offer a third language of the student's choice only where resources permit and students desire

🎯 UPSC Relevance: GS2 Governance/Education and GS1 Society — language policy, NEP 2020 implementation, federalism/centre-State friction over language, and the politics of the three-language formula.

📝 Prelims Facts:

• NEP 2020 advocates the three-language formula with two of three languages native to India
• CBSE = Central Board of Secondary Education
• Relaxation: third language not tested in Class 10 Board exams (transitional)

🔑 Key Term: Three-language formula — an education policy under which students learn three languages, with (per NEP 2020) at least two being native to India.