As many as 28 lakh blank report cards for classes VII and VIII that the state government has distributed to aided schools does not have the column for marks in the third language paper.

“One way to fix the problem is to replace the report cards. But that will cost a lot because close to 28 lakh students are studying in classes VII and VIII in 16,000-odd government-aided schools,” a school education department official said.

“The other option is to ask the schools to write the words ‘Third Language’ on the report cards by hand and enter the marks below it.”

All students in classes VII and VIII at government-aided schools in Bengal have to study a third language and get pass marks in the paper to get promoted to the next class.

In most schools, Hindi or Sanskrit is taught as the third language.

The absence of the column for third language marks in the blank report cards that the education department started distributing to schools on Monday has led to confusion and speculation that the government is set to scrap its three-language policy.

An official in the school education department clarified that there was no change in the policy of teaching a third language in classes VII and VIII.

As for the missing column, the official attributed it to a mistake at the time of formatting the report cards.

This is the first time the government is distributing blank, formatted report cards to schools. Till last year, the schools would print the report cards themselves.

“Many schools have enquired about the missing third language column in the report cards. The mistake will be rectified. We are trying to figure out how the problem can be fixed and are considering replacing the mark sheets,” the official said.

The heads of many schools in the city Metro got in touch with spoke about the confusion and speculation triggered by the wrongly formatted report cards.

The headmaster of a school in north Calcutta said the state secondary education board, in a recent notice announcing the academic calendar for the 2019-20 session, had asked the

schools to allot two periods in a week for the third language paper.

“So we were surprised when we received the report cards as they did not have any column for the third language marks. We were wondering whether third language was no longer a compulsory paper. The government is yet to send a clarification,” said the headmaster, who preferred to remain anonymous.

The headmaster of a school in south Calcutta, however, said the board had told his institution that the error had been rectified.

“We have been told it is a mistake and will be rectified,” the headmaster said.