Karnataka Governor Thawarchand Gehlot has asked for a thorough review of the state government's recent decision to replace the marks system with a grading system for the third language in the Secondary School Leaving Certificate (SSLC) examination. This change, announced on March 27, aims to alleviate academic pressure on students, particularly as data shows that 146,000 out of 164,000 students who failed their exams in the 2024-25 academic year did so due to difficulties with the third language. Critics, including the Association for Preservation of Local Languages, Bengaluru, argue that this shift could diminish the importance of third-language learning, which is vital for promoting linguistic diversity and intellectual growth. The new grading system will exclude the third language from the overall pass-or-fail criteria, reducing the total marks for the SSLC exam from 625 to 525. The decision has ignited discussions about language policy in Karnataka, with some advocating for a two-language system, reflecting ongoing tensions regarding the prominence of Hindi in the state's educational framework. Opposition leaders have criticized the move, labeling it as detrimental to Hindi language education.