As many of the Marathi-speaking families would not opt for Gujarati, Bengali or any southern state languages, Hindi would remain the preferred third language in most of the schools. This means Hindi will be the most preferred language for Standard 1 to 5 across all schools in Maharashtra.

On Tuesday, the Maharashtra government came out with orders which state that if anyone wants to have an alternative language to Hindi, they can opt for the same, but it would require a minimum of 20 students in the class.

“If the requirement is not met, the education for the opted language will be offered through online studies,” a revised Government Resolution (GR) issued by the state government on June 17 mentioned.