Is English native or foreign? CBSE third-language rule sparks confusion in schools

Is English a foreign language or a native language? The question has left principals across CBSE schools in a tizzy.

The recently released CBSE curriculum states that the study of a third language “shall be made compulsory from Class VI with effect from Academic Session 2026–27, ensuring that every learner studies at least two Indian languages”.

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In a circular dated April 9, the board reiterated that schools must begin teaching the third language “immediately” and ensure compliance within seven days, even though textbooks are yet to reach schools.

Most institutions say they will manage for now using YouTube videos, apps such as Duolingo, and PDF material.

Schools divided on English

A key issue, however, is the lack of clarity on how to classify English. With the push to prioritise Indian languages, schools are unsure whether English should be treated as a native or foreign language, leading to varied interpretations.

In many Delhi schools, Sanskrit is emerging as the default third language, leaving students with little choice. Rachna Tyagi, vice-principal of Rajdhani Public School, said Sanskrit has been in place as the third language since last year.

“We have already started offering the third language since last year, under NEP 2020. In class 6, we have English as the foreign language, and Hindi and Sanskrit as the native language. Sanskrit is our ethnic, traditional language. According to our locality and composition, we have more than 50% EWS (Economically Weaker Section) students, and many of them belong to migrant families from Bihar and Jharkhand. Since our Sanskrit faculty is good, we thought it would be more beneficial to offer our traditional language,” she said.

The school had briefly experimented with Gujarati but dropped it due to low uptake. “From next year, we might offer more regional languages,” she said.

Foreign languages lose ground

The situation is more complicated for schools that earlier offered foreign languages as third-language options. With the emphasis now on Indian languages, these subjects are being dropped or pushed into hobby categories.

Modern Public School Principal Alka Kapur said the school had offered German and French, but would now treat them as hobby subjects.

“We have a teacher who will be mostly free because hobby classes are not that many, but somewhere the school and teachers were mentally prepared for this to happen. But many schools are in flux about what to do,” she said. She added that Sanskrit would now be the only third-language (R3) option, alongside Hindi and English as R1 and R2.

Although Kapur acknowledged that students prefer foreign languages, she said Sanskrit had become the practical choice.

“Students will be comfortable doing Sanskrit, because what’s the point of studying Tamil or Malayalam? Children may not be very happy doing it; they will certainly want foreign languages. But once they’ve made it compulsory, we’ll abide by the rules, because the government has a valid point. China and France study their language, but in India, the common language should be Sanskrit because it’s the mother of all languages,” she said.

Schools adapt language choices

At Nav Jeewan Model School, students earlier had the option of Sanskrit, Punjabi, and French. That is now set to change.

“Now, since French is not an Indian language, we will offer Sanskrit and Punjabi. Maybe we will offer a choice between English and French, but since most, if not all, students will choose English, we will have to do away with French. Our French teacher also knows English, so we will ask her to teach English. We don’t have any other choice. We don’t want to say no, because she has been teaching here for the past eight years,” said Principal Anjana Dixit.

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Despite the constraints, Dixit described the move as “a very good initiative”, emphasising the importance of students understanding different languages and cultures and celebrating “unity and diversity”.

Some schools, however, have carried out an extensive exercise to ensure that the goals of multilingualism are met in the truest sense, and that there are choices between multiple languages. At ITL Public School, Principal Sudha Acharya conducted a language mapping exercise across the school and found 21 languages being spoken.

“Accordingly, I have offered four regional languages from four different parts of India, i.e. North, South, East, and West. So, I am offering Punjabi, Tamil, Bengali and Marathi. Apart from these four, there will also be the option of choosing Sanskrit. Why? Because I have teachers from these languages. We already had these teachers; they were teaching other subjects. Like my librarian is a Bengali,” Acharya told The Federal.

English treated as native

She said a language committee was formed, and parents were sent a Google Form along with the CBSE circular, to respond with their choice of language.

“The aim is to apprise children about different cultures, rich heritage, cuisines, climate, and economies, rather than making them proficient in a specific language so that they can read and write. That is why it is a school-based, project-based internal assessment,” she said. She added that parents would also be involved in some teaching activities.

Several principals, however, are choosing to classify English as a native language.

“Our understanding is very clear that R1 is English, R2 is Hindi, and R3 can be any language from the 43 languages mentioned in Table 7 (of the CBSE curriculum). So we have Sanskrit, French, German, and Spanish as options. We had also started Bengali, Urdu and Punjabi. We were offering them in classes 4 and 5, but we have not started in class 6. Maybe going forward, we will offer that,” said Jyoti Gupta, Principal of KR Mangalam World School.

Principals defend English status

On whether this would lead to Sanskrit being made compulsory, she said, “Who says that English is not a native language? It is not a foreign language. It is an official language; it is a link language. It is the language of the judiciary. It is the language in which the Government of India does its communication… The medium of instruction in CBSE Boards is English.”

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Asked if she’s treating English as a native language, Gupta said, “I’m treating it as an official language, which is parallel to being a native language.”

Anjali Abrol, Principal of Rajiv Gandhi Memorial Public School, also said the school would follow a similar approach.

“We have not started offering the third language yet, but we are planning. Hindi and English are compulsory, and the third language will either be Sanskrit or French. We are taking English as a native language. Except for Hindi, all subjects are in English, so we will count that as a compulsory subject, so that writing and speaking skills in the language can be improved,” she said.

The Federal reached out to the CBSE PRO with queries, but received only the official circulars in response.