Mother Tongue Inclusion in School Admission Forms ordered by CBSE

Those schools which are affiliated to CBSE would now have to include a column where there has to the details of the child’s mother tongue as well as preference language of study by the children. The change would be made under the three-language formula taken up recently by the board.

CBSE recently communicated to all its affiliated schools that there should be a column in the application forms for admission that would keep the recommendation of the board’s examination committee on compulsory registration of mother tongue of the students. The schools have also been informed that the preference of language of study from the children should also be taken under the three-language formula initiated by the board. Under this formula the students are free to take any ‘modern Indian language’ scribbled in the Constitution to be their third language along with English and Hindi the other two languages.

The controversy around the replacement of Sanskrit with German as the third language in Kendriya Vidyalayas, in the first half of the year, is seemed to be the reason behind such directive by the board. If the schools are aware of the language preferences of students they could streamline their process of recruitment of teachers accordingly as well. The schools can even make a proper assessment of the preferred language of the students.  CBSE has issued in its earlier circular that every children is entitled under the Constitution’s Article 350A to access education in their mother tongue. This new directive could be one step further in the same direction.