New Delhi: Odia, along with other languages and subjects, will continue to be offered for Class X board examinations in 2025-2026, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) said on Wednesday.
The clarification comes after an objection was raised by Punjab as CBSE’s draft norms for holding class X board exams twice a year, released on Tuesday evening, did not include Punjabi.
After Punjab’s Education Minister Harjot Singh Bains shared a video on X expressing his concern over Punjabi being dropped, the CBSE issued a clarification on Wednesday.
“It is clarified that the list of other subjects and languages contained in the draft sheet is only indicative, and all the subjects and languages as offered presently shall continue to be offered for 2025-2026 as well,” the CBSE said in a press release.
“Thus, in addition to the languages mentioned under the list of languages in point 8 of the draft policy under the heading ‘Regional and Foreign languages group’, Punjabi (004), Russian (021), Nepali (024), Limboo (025), Lepcha (026), Sindhi (008), Malayalam (012), Odia (013), Assamese (014), Kannada (015), Kokborok (091), Telugu (007), Arabic(016) and Persian(023) shall continue to be offered,” the notice read.
CBSE thus reiterated the Education ministry’s commitment to supporting linguistic diversity by presenting regional languages as choices for students throughout India.
The board aims to introduce a two-exam system, but this would not affect the availability of languages from different states.
