CBSE issues new guidelines for language instruction in schools: All you need to know

The Central Board of Secondary Education, on Thursday, issued guidelines, placing a “renewed emphasis” that all its affiliated schools adopt the mother tongue or a familiar regional language as the primary medium of instruction for early grades starting this academic session (2025–26), under the new National Curriculum Framework for School Education (NCF-2023).

The latest directive, NCF-2023 — issued as part of the implementation of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 — places strong emphasis on the use of “home languages” or mother tongue during the Foundational Stage (Pre-primary to Grade 2, ages 3–8), as per the official statement.

What does CBSE’s directive say?

The Education Board’s latest directive has emphasised the following:

1. Mother tongue — R1

The directive has emphasised that the language most familiar to the child—preferably the mother tongue—ideally must be used as both the language of literacy and the medium of instruction (MoI) for all subjects. This aims to build strong foundational literacy and comprehension skills by leveraging children’s existing linguistic and cultural knowledge.

If implementing the mother tongue is not feasible due to factors like classroom diversity or lack of written tradition, the policy allows for R1 to be the State Language, provided it is familiar to the child.

2. Bilingual approach – R2

In addition to R1, children will also be introduced to R2, a second spoken language, gradually familiarising them with multilingual learning. However, formal literacy goals—such as reading fluency, sentence construction, and expression—will focus exclusively on R1 during the foundational years.

At the end of Grade 2, students are expected to read fluently and comprehend texts in R1, and begin writing simple sentences to describe their experiences and surroundings.

Options for Medium of Instruction in Preparatory Stage

For the Preparatory Stage (Grades 3-5), the directive stated that at least one language native to India will be offered as an option for the medium of instruction(MoI) to all students up to Grade 12. Schools are, accordingly, required to provide this option in all classes starting with the Preparatory Stage, if the primary MoI is not a language that is native to India.

Here’s the circular issued to all Heads of Schools Affiliated to CBSE: