93% of Karnataka students choose Hindi as third language

Nearly 93 per cent of Karnataka state board students have chosen Hindi as their third language this academic year, according to official data. Of the 8.1 lakh students who selected a third language, over 7.5 lakh opted for Hindi under the general course, with an additional 4,778 studying it through NCERT curriculum in Adarsha Vidyalayas.

Other languages saw significantly lower enrollment. Kannada was chosen by 11,483 students, English by 32,135, Sanskrit by 5,159, and Urdu by 5,544. Regional languages like Tulu (845 students), Konkani (34), and Marathi (3) had minimal uptake.

The trend follows a policy shift where third language evaluation changed from marks-based to a grading system. The subject, previously worth 100 marks out of 625 total, will no longer count toward final scores. Instead, students receive grades of A, B, C, or D. Education officials note that Hindi's prominence as a widely-spoken language naturally influenced student preferences under this new system.