New Delhi: In a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Congress MP in Rajya Sabha Digvijaya Singh urged the Union government not to implement the three-language policy for Class IX students of the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) in the ongoing session, saying that enforcing it without adequate teachers, textbooks or transition time would create “serious disruption”.

“I am forwarding herewith a representation received from a group of concerned parents of CBSE Class IX students, opposing the mandatory implementation of the three-language policy in the current mid-session… Having gone through the representation, I find the concerns raised to be genuine and deserving of immediate attention,” he wrote in a letter dated June 5. 

Singh, who heads the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Education, Women, Children, Youth and Sports, compared enforcement of the three-language policy with the chaos witnessed during the “hasty implementation of CBSE’s On-Screen Marking System (OSM)”. 

"The sudden enforcement of this policy mid-session – without adequate teachers, textbooks, or transition time – is likely to create serious disruption, not unlike the chaos witnessed during the hasty implementation of CBSE's On-Screen Marking (OSM) system, which adversely impacted lakhs of students across the country," he said.

The OSM marking has adversely impacted lakhs of students across the country, leading many of them to protest against Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan, demanding his resignation. Scores of students and youth turned up at Delhi's Jantar Mantar on June 5, led by the Cockroach Janta Party, demanding the government's accountability in the issue.

Just a day before it, the CBSE moved the re-evaluation process for Class 12 answer scripts away from the platform Coempt and onto infrastructure controlled by the board. There have been mounting questions over the procurement and rollout of, and cybersecurity safeguards surrounding, the digital evaluation system used for this year’s class 12 examinations.

Further, he pointed out that the CBSE's governing body had in its meeting in December 2025 ratified the curriculum committee's recommendation that schools continue with the existing scheme of studies, especially with regards to language until the release of graded textbooks of languages by NCERT.

“Despite its own Governing Body's decision, the CBSE issued a circular on May 15, 2026, asking for the implementation of 3rd language instruction in Grade IX from 15 July 2026. The NCERT has not yet released graded textbooks of language and the CBSE has therefore recommended the use of the NCERT's Grade 6 textbooks. It is not clear how and why the CBSE has so evidently overturned its Governing Body's decision, and in a way that threatens the academic planning of thousands of schools across the country,” the Congress MP said.

Also read: Language Shaming and the Avoidable Burden of the Three-Language Formula

He noted that the situation was especially untenable for students in the southern and north-eastern states of India where Hindi is not spoken.

“Local tribal languages may not feature in CBSE's recognised language list. Sanskrit has emerged as a popular third language choice for many schools but it should also be noted that there is a severe shortage of qualified Sanskrit teachers and appropriate textbooks – a situation that would defeat the very purpose of promoting this beautiful language,” he said.

Singh demanded that the implementation of the three-language policy for current Class IX students be put on hold immediately.

“I earnestly hope that the matter will receive your urgent and sympathetic consideration in the interest of the millions of students whose academic futures depend on sound and well-prepared policy decisions,” the Congress MP said.

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