Students in class 9 and 10 will now have to mandatorily study three languages including two Indian native ones while students in classes 11-12 will have to study one Indian and one other language, according to the New Curriculum Framework (NCF).
The NCF has been prepared according to the new National Education Policy (NEP) by the national steering committee, headed by former ISRO chief K Kasturirangan.
At present, class 9 and 10 students study two mandatory languages and class 11 and 12 students study one language.
So far, the students from 9 to 12 had to mandatorily study five subjects with an option of adding one additional subject.
According to the recommendations made in NCF, the number of mandatory subjects will be seven for classes 9-10 and six for classes 11-12.
"Language across stages will help students develop democratic and epistemic values, and dispositions of respect for culture and diversity in society ('cultural literacy')," said the NCF document accessed by PTI.
"Learning more than one language will broaden students' horizons and learning another Indian language will enable a deeper connection with the country and develop a sense of pride and belonging to the country," it added.
Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan handed over the NCF to the National Council for Educational Research and Training (NCERT) on Wednesday during the joint meeting of the National Oversight Committee (NOC) and National Syllabus and Teaching-Learning Material Committee (NSTC), thereby paving the way for the development of the school syllabus and textbooks.
According to the curricular structure define in NCF for classes 9 and 10, all schools need to offer three languages and "at least two of which are native to India".
"Apart from the three languages, students are to study seven other subjects from the groupings of mathematics and computational thinking, social science, science, art education, physical education and well-being, vocational education, and interdisciplinary areas.
"However, board exams will be conducted for seven subjects, including the languages, while for art education, physical education and well-being, vocational education the mode of assessment will be internal exam with external examiner," the document stated.
Currently, for classes 11 and 12 study of only one language is mandatory.
"For classes 11 and 12, students need to study two subjects from Language Education (called Group 1), at least one of which must be a language native to India. Literature subjects are also contained in Language Education at this level," the document said.
Changing the nomenclature of the current secondary and senior secondary into one secondary stage divided into two phases - classes IX and X, and classes XI and XII, the NCF recommends "four years of multidisciplinary study" across all curricular areas.
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