Education in the Mother Tongue: CBSE’s New Guideline Explained
- Jun 26, 2025
In a crucial move to improve language learning in early education, the CBSE has advised all affiliated schools to adopt the language instruction guidelines outlined in the National Curriculum Framework for School Education 2023, beginning from the 2025 to 26 academic session. The board has put specific effort into using the mother tongue as the medium of instruction during the Preparatory and Foundational stages of schooling.
The CBSE board cleared that at the foundational stage (Ages: 3 – 8), the child's home language should be the primary medium of instruction. The CBSE has also instructed schools to start language mapping courses for students without delay to finish the formation of an NCF Implementation Committee by the end of 2025. The directive is part of a major effort to adjust to NEP 2020, which promotes cognitive growth, inclusion, and equity through multilingual learning.
The first language of literacy should be the child’s mother tongue or a familiar language. R1 must be the medium of instruction until foundational literacy in any other language is accomplished. The board also acknowledged that if the mother tongue is not possible because of a lack of written tradition or classroom diversity, the state's language may serve as R1.
Schools should make sure children get foundational literacy in R1, involving the ability to write short sentences, read fluently, and comprehend texts delivering personal experiences. Additionally, students should start acquiring a second language (R2) through oral exposure. At the end of this stage, children are expected to speak and understand R1 and R2.
CBSE Board suggests that, for Balvatika (pre-primary levels), CBSE encourages the use of play-related resources like E-Jadui Pitara and Jadui Pitara, available in many Indian languages. For 1 and 2 Grades, NCERT textbooks are advised, with print editions available in English, Hindi, Urdu and other digital versions and languages on the NCERT website.
At the Preparatory stage, students may continue studying in R1, though schools may allow a shift to R2 if the child has taken sufficient literacy in it. CBSE referred to page 36 of NCF 2023, noting that "since the R1 literacy is attained initially, it should be employed as the medium of instruction for other subjects. At this stage, students are expected to develop advanced writing and reading skills and communicate using complex sentence structures.
They are also involved in several written formats like poems, dialogues, short paragraphs and posters. For R2, the focus remains on emerging writing abilities, reading comprehension and oral fluency.