New Delhi: The Central government has informed the Supreme Court that consultations regarding granting a one-time exemption from the three-language policy for 6th-grade students in the current academic year will be expedited.
Based on the National Education Policy 2020, the Central government has insisted that the three-language policy should be followed. Under this, the National Education Policy emphasizes that students should be taught three languages: the relevant state language, English, and one other Indian language.
In line with this announcement of the National Education Policy, CBSE announced that the three-language policy would be followed from Class 6 itself in the current academic year. CBSE also announced that the three-language policy would be implemented gradually up to Class 7 in the next academic year, and up to Class 8 in the academic year after that.
At present, although the three-language policy is followed in some schools up to Class 8, after that only the two-language policy is followed.
Cases have been filed in the Supreme Court challenging CBSE’s implementation of the three-language policy. These cases came up for hearing today before a bench headed by Chief Justice Surya Kant.
In this case, Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati, who had been appearing for the government side, did not appear today, and Solicitor General Tushar Mehta appeared in her place.
Senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, appearing for the petitioners, requested that “the court should deliver its judgment on the issue of shifting English to the foreign language category.”
At that point, Tushar Mehta said, “The government has objections to this. We would like to present our arguments on this matter. However, due to personal difficulties, Aishwarya Bhati was unable to argue in court today. Therefore, the hearing should be adjourned for some time,” he requested.
Furthermore, he said that consultations on granting a one-time exemption from the three-language policy for 6th-grade students in the current academic year would be expedited. Following this, the court adjourned the hearing to the 17th of this month.
Another senior lawyer appearing for the petitioner, Anand Grover, urged the court not to grant any further time in this matter, as parents are growing concerned.
During the previous hearing, the court had asked that consideration be given to exempting the implementation of the three-language policy this year. The court said that the three-language scheme must be implemented, while also stating that the CBSE should further streamline its implementation process.
