The Delhi government has withdrawn a provision in its revised class 9 examination and promotion policy that made students ineligible to appear for the class 10 board papers if they failed to qualify in the third language (R3) opted for in the previous class.
Earlier, the Directorate of Education had said that class 9 students who failed to qualify in R3 could still be promoted to the next class if they met the other promotion criteria but must clear the subject while studying in class 10 to be eligible for the board exams.
The provision has now been withdrawn, with the CBSE ‘s guidelines on R3 set to prevail, according to a corrigendum issued on Tuesday.
An official said the provision was withdrawn because of confusion over the interpretation of the earlier order.
The CBSE had introduced a three-language policy in May under the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 and the National Curriculum Framework for School Education (NCF-SE) 2023.
The policy that requires class 9 and 10 students to study three languages, at least two of which must be Indian languages, came into effect on July 1. Under the CBSE guidelines, R3 is assessed entirely through school-based internal evaluation with no need for a separate Class 10 board exam for the third language.
While R3 marks will appear on the final CBSE certificate, its score will have no bearing on a student’s eligibility to appear in the Class 10 board.
The Delhi Education Department’s revised class 9 examination and promotion policy, issued earlier this week, had made the third language compulsory and provided for school-level assessment of the subject.
The revised system also introduced vocational education as a compulsory subject for class 9 students and optional advanced-level exams in Mathematics and Science. Under the new scheme, the six main subjects are Language-1, Language-2, Mathematics, Science, Social Science, and Vocational Education (Kaushal Vikas), which will form the basis for academic progression and promotion to class 10.
The directorate also discontinued the Mathematics Basic and Mathematics Standard exam structure for class 9 from the 2026-27 academic session. The existing system will continue for class 10 students in 2026-27.
The revised curriculum also includes Individuals in Society, Art Education, and Physical Education and Well-Being as compulsory curricular areas with school-based assessment.
Computational Thinking and Artificial Intelligence will be introduced as structured modules during 2026-27 and become a compulsory subject from 2027-28.
