Cites student stress
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Thursday voiced concern over the introduction of a third language in Class 9 under the CBSE curriculum, observing it would increase the stress level of students and suggesting it be introduced in Class 5 or Class 6 so that students can cope with it.
A bench of Justices BV Nagarathna and R Mahadevan orally asked the Centre to not introduce a third language in Class 9 level.
“Union of India please don’t have a third language from Class 9 level. It would unnecessarily increase the stress level of students. If you want to introduce a new language, then please do it at Class 5 or Class 6 level but not at Class 9 level. Class nine is full of stress, it starts from Class 8 onwards,” Justice Nagarathna told the counsel, appearing for the Centre, and asked her to convey the feeling of the court to the government.
The remarks were made during the hearing of the Tamil Nadu government’s plea against a Madras High Court directive to facilitate the establishment of Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas (JNVs) in every district of the State.
The Tamil Nadu government has consistently opposed the setting up of JNVs, over concerns with regard to the three-language policy curriculum followed by the schools.
The bench was not directly dealing with the issue of new policy of CBSE but the court made observations on the timing of introduction of third language in schools.
Another apex court bench headed by Chief Justice Surya Kant is already examining issues with regard to challenge to the new policy of the CBSE and recently refused to stay the notification.
The court was hearing petitions filed on the introduction of Navodaya schools in Tamil Nadu. The state government, during the previous Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) regime, had maintained that the schools envisioned under the Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya Scheme was “fundamentally incompatible” with the two-language policy followed in Tamil Nadu.
The state had, in earlier hearings, argued that the Navodaya scheme based on the three-language formula was a deviation from the mandate of the Tamil Nadu Tamil Learning Act, 2006. The state had submitted that the three-language formula was considered as a core pedagogical and administrative framework of the Navodaya scheme. The Tamil Nadu government had maintained that the imposition of the scheme was a “backdoor” ploy to make Hindi compulsory.
PTI/Agencies