Start teaching third language from Class 6, CBSE directs schools

The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has directed schools to start teaching third language (R3) within a week, according to an official circular issued on Thursday. "It has been learnt that many schools have already initiated the implementation of R3... All remaining schools are hereby directed to ensure compliance within 7 days from the date of issuance of this circular," read the CBSE circular. This comes a week after CBSE on April 2 rolled out major reforms in its scheme of studies, making the third language compulsory in class 6 from the ongoing 2026-27 academic session onwards. Students of Class 6 in the current academic session will be the first cohort that will study a compulsory third language when they will be in class 10 in 2030-31. However, the assessment of the third language (R3) will involve a school-based internal assessment in 2031, and not a board examination, according to CBSE’s curriculum document.
Under the new CBSE secondary school curriculum released on April 2, language subjects will be organised into three levels—R1, R2 and R3—as part of a structured three-language model. R1 (Language 1) will be the student’s main or strongest language, studied at a higher level, R2 (Language 2) is a different language, studied at a slightly different level. The third language (R3) will be compulsory from Class 6 starting this academic session 2026-27 and extended progressively to Class 10 by 2030-31."Languages include two official languages of India i.e. Hindi, English and 42 other languages. Thus, all scheduled languages listed in the 8th schedule of the Constitution of India are being offered, in addition to other Indian regional languages and foreign languages," CBSE notification mentioned.