The West Bengal government's new education policy mandates that students will have to learn three languages in classes 5-8, with Bengali as a priority language, an official said on Tuesday.

Two languages will be taught at the primary level - of which one will be the mother tongue, the official elaborating on the policy cleared on Monday by the state cabinet said.

The official said that students of classes 5 to 8 would have to take three languages out of which the third one could be regional one or a foreign language.

"The third language could be a local or regional language as well as a foreign language, but priority must be given to Bengali, Sanskrit or Hindi. The main idea is to teach Bengali to youngsters in West Bengal," he added.

Asked when this three-language policy would be introduced, the official said that it would be done in phases.

Elaborating on the policy, the bureaucrat said that the policy has decided to adhere to the existing divisions in the education level - four years each of primary and upper primary and two years of secondary and another two years of higher secondary education.

Talking more about the policy, the official said, it would start a semester system from classes 8 to 12 and it would be introduced in phases over three years' time.

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