The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) on Tuesday announced that the current batch of Class 10 will not have to follow the new language policy. The current batches studying in classes 7, 8 and 9 would not be required to give board examination in third language when they progress to Class 10.The National Education Policy 2020 recommends learning three languages, with at least two of the three native Indian languages. A non- native language can be opted for as the third language (R3), provided that the other two are Indian languages.“It is reiterated that there will be no change for students who are in Class 10 during 2026–27, and they will continue with the old system of two languages. No third language is required to be taken by this batch,” CBSE said.It also announced every student in Class IX would study three languages. Out of these three languages, at least two would be Indian. As a special one-time relaxation for students who are already in Class 9 during 2026-27, can continue with the two non-native languages and need to add only one Indian language as the third language (R3).It explained that if a Class 9 student is studying two Indian languages, for example Hindi and Tamil, is free to choose either a third Indian language or a non-native language such as English or French. If a student has opted for an Indian language and one non-native language for example Tamil and English can choose any third Indian language.“The third language (R3) will be assessed by your school through an internal school based assessment only. There will be no CBSE Board examination for this third language when this batch progresses to Class 10 2027-28,” the board said.The CBSE students studying in Class 7 and 8 will continue to study three languages, with two of them being Indian.As a one-time relaxation for the current batch the board said that the students who have already selected and started studying two non-native languages need to study one additional Indian language and continue the same till Class 10. “The third language (R3) will be assessed by the school through an internal school-based assessment only. There will be no CBSE Board examination for this third language when these batches progress to Class 10,” it clarified.When the Class 6 student studying in the current batch progresses to Class 10 they are required to take the Board examination of the third language. Out of the three languages, two would be Indian for this batch and onwards. The dedicated third language textbooks for Class 6 in 22 scheduled Indian languages will be made available.For the CBSE schools located outside India full exemption from a native Indian Language as third language is provided to all CBSE schools situated outside India. Foreign students returning to India are also exempted from studying a native Indian language as third language.“In the case of parents/guardians migrating to another state, the student may continue with the existing combination of languages they opted for as R3 in Middle Stage in Class 9 also. In such cases, schools must necessarily provision adequate resources to support the student’s choices,” CBSE said.