India, April 9 -- The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) on Thursday directed schools to start teaching third languages (R3) from Class 6 "immediately" using locally available books and materials in line with its latest scheme of studies.

This comes a week after CBSE on April 2 rolled out major reforms in its scheme of studies, making the third language compulsory in class 6 from the ongoing 2026-27 academic session onwards. Students of Class 6 in the current academic session will be the first cohort that will study a compulsory third language when they will be in class 10 in 2030-31. However, the assessment of the third language (R3) will involve a school-based internal assessment in 2031, and not a board examination, according...