CBSE mandates third language assessment for secondary school certificates

Students in Classes 9 and 10 will soon need to pass an internal test in a third language to secure their secondary school certificates. Under the National Education Policy 2020 guidelines, the Central Board of Secondary Education has made this school-based evaluation compulsory starting from the 2027-28 academic session. Odisha schools have historically balanced Odia, Hindi, and English instruction, making them relatively well-prepared for this renewed multilingual push compared to largely monolingual states.

Details of mandatory testing

Schools will handle these internal evaluations directly rather than including the subject in the final standardized board examinations. Candidates must successfully clear this specific language assessment to receive their final Class 10 pass certificate. Education board officials clarified that students who fail the internal test during Class 9 will still receive a promotion to Class 10. However, those promoted students must eventually clear the pending evaluation before finishing their secondary education program. If a candidate fails the internal check in Class 10, the school administration is required to conduct a complete retest before declaring the final board results. Previous educational norms generally allowed students to drop their third language requirement after finishing Class 8. This revised instructional framework requires studying three distinct languages, with at least two being native to India. Students currently in Class 10 remain completely unaffected by these incoming curriculum changes.

Ongoing legal challenges

Implementation of this revised language structure currently faces active opposition in the judicial system. Petitioners want to delay the mandatory rollout until the 2029-30 academic school year. Government officials recently submitted a detailed affidavit strongly defending the proposed policy changes. They argued that promoting multilingual skills actively strengthens student cognitive development and preserves native Indian dialects across the entire country. Authorities are currently pushing forward with the 2027-28 execution timeline while closely monitoring the ongoing legal proceedings.