Punjab education minister Harjot Singh Bains writes to Centre for restoration of Punjabi as main subject in CBSE curriculum

The Punjab government on Thursday demanded immediate action to restore Punjabi as a main subject in the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) curriculum for Class 10 in Punjab, besides demanding inclusion of Punjabi language in the list of regional languages across India.

In a letter to Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan, Punjab school education minister Harjot Singh Bains, expressed strong objection and deep resentment over the “deliberate sidelining” of Punjabi in the recently proposed CBSE exam pattern for Class 10 (2025-26), calling it a direct attack on the linguistic and cultural identity of the state.

The strongly worded letter was sent a day after the Punjab government’s notification on February 26 regarding making Punjabi a mandatory subject in all schools across the state, regardless of their board affiliation. It stated that education certificates will be considered null and void without Punjabi as the main subject.

Citing that such omission cannot be just termed as a clerical error, Bains also demanded a full investigation into this exclusion of Punjabi from the Class 10 subjects list. “Also, I demand an immediate rollback of this discriminatory draft for being in violation of the State Law and a clear assurance that Punjabi will be reinstated as a main subject in CBSE schools across Punjab,” he said.

The school education minister stated that as per the new scheme, only five main subjects -Mathematics, Science, Social Science, English, and Hindi – have been listed for regular board exams, effectively removing Punjabi from the category of main subjects and relegating it to an optional language, whose exam will be held alongside foreign languages in a single day. “This is an unacceptable attempt to diminish Punjabi and cannot be tolerated,” reads the letter.

The minister said that Punjabi was omitted from the list of regional and foreign languages, while languages like German, French, Thai, and Japanese were included. “It was only after my strong protest and media pressure that CBSE was forced to acknowledge this grave mistake,” he stated in his letter, calling it a deliberate move and a systematic effort to weaken Punjabi, which must be investigated.