New Delhi: A recent decision by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) to restrict board exam answers to only Hindi and English has raised concerns for three Urdu-medium schools affiliated with the Maulana Azad National Urdu University (MANUU). The affected schools, located in Hyderabad (Telangana), Nuh (Haryana), and Darbhanga (Bihar), have been left grappling with the new mandate that prevents students from writing exams in Urdu, as per a report by The Telegraph India.
The CBSE, India’s largest school board, does not officially recognize any medium of instruction but requires students to choose a language for their exams during the admission process. In a meeting held in June, the board decided that answer scripts written in any language other than Hindi or English, without prior permission, would not be evaluated. This rule, however, only applies to non-Delhi-based schools, leaving schools outside the capital at a disadvantage.
The issue came to light after students in the Vijayawada region, unaffiliated with MANUU, wrote their exam answers in Urdu without obtaining permission from the CBSE. The governing body responded by instructing schools to ensure students comply with the board’s language policy, warning that students who defy this rule would receive no marks in their exams.
The MANUU-affiliated model schools, established in 2010, have been offering education in Urdu and were granted CBSE affiliation with this understanding. Until 2020, question papers were provided in Urdu, Hindi, and English. However, from 2021 onwards, the board stopped issuing Urdu-language question papers, leaving students reliant on Hindi and English versions.
Despite this change, students from the MANUU schools continued to write their answers in Urdu for the past three years. However, with the CBSE’s latest decision, this practice will no longer be allowed. An official from one of the affected schools expressed concerns, stating, “Our students are struggling to comprehend the question papers since they are not in their primary language, Urdu. We have informed the CBSE, but the issue remains unresolved.”
Afroz Alam, a professor of political science at MANUU, criticized the decision, pointing out that the National Education Policy (NEP) emphasizes education in the mother tongue. He remarked, “Once students begin their education in Urdu, it is only fair to allow them to write their exams in that language. Forcing them to shift to Hindi or English is unjust.”
In response, Sanyam Bhardwaj, CBSE’s controller of examinations, denied that the MANUU schools were Urdu-medium, stating that only Delhi-based schools are recognized as such. “Question papers are provided in Urdu according to the requirements of schools in Delhi,” he said in an email response.
The situation has raised broader concerns about the challenges faced by Urdu-medium students in an education system that appears to be sidelining their linguistic needs.
