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A parent’s plea to CBSE—don’t turn the 3-language policy into a mid-session experiment

Educational reforms should protect students caught between old and new systems. Instead, the present implementation of the new policy risks doing precisely the opposite.

Purvam nishchitya pashchat karyamarabhet (First deliberate thoroughly, then commence the task). This quote by Chanakya encapsulates a principle as relevant to public policy as it is to personal conduct: thoughtful planning must precede action. Every significant undertaking requires preparation, assessment of consequences, and an understanding of the circumstances in which it will be implemented.

It is against this yardstick that I, as a parent of two children studying in Classes VII and IX, find myself questioning the implementation of a policy whose objectives I broadly support.

I support multilingualism and the idea that children should have the opportunity to develop a deeper connection with India’s linguistic heritage.

What I do not support is asking children to bear the cost of a transition that should have been planned years ago and implemented gradually, not hurriedly.

My younger child, now in Class VII, has been studying a foreign language alongside English and Hindi since Class IV. She chose it enthusiastically and has spent the last three years building familiarity and confidence in it. Like many children her age, she is now apprehensive about suddenly having to pick up Sanskrit, a language she has never studied before.

My older child followed a similar path. She studied a foreign language as her third language until Class VIII and entered Class IX expecting to continue under the framework that existed when she made those choices. She, too, has never studied Sanskrit. Yet under the revised guidelines, she may now be required to alter an academic pathway she has followed for years.

Neither of my children is an exception. Across schools, countless children have spent years studying French, German, Spanish, Japanese, and other foreign languages within a framework that existed when they entered school.

My older child entered Class IX in April with a clear understanding of the subjects she would be studying and the academic pathway she would follow. Then, in mid-May, after the academic session had already begun, CBSE announced that from 1 July, students would be required to study three languages, with at least two of them being native Indian languages.

An ill-prepared education system

For families like mine, that announcement has created uncertainty where there was clarity previously. Students who........

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