Abolishment of Secondary Examination
Letter to the Minister of Human Resource Development Shri. Kapil Sippal, June 29, 2009
I must express my sincere reservation and even opposition to your plan of doing way with Secondary School Examinations and replacing it with one optional under the CBSE.
For nearly a century after modern education was introduced in our country under the British rule, the word Matriculation was seen and used as a milestone in the educational career of those who were admitted to modern education. School education had other milestones like Lower Primary, Higher Primary and Middle. These examinations were slowly abolished. The term matriculation examination was also substituted by Secondary School Examination.

But the educational status of an individual continued to be measured by terms like Pre-matric and Post-matric. Matriculation stood for a minimum level of recognized educational achievement. But high schools, which taught up to Matric, and sent up candidates for Matriculation Examination existed in every town and qasba. Indeed for recruitment in Government service, Matriculation or Secondary Certificate continues to be the minimum qualification at the Group C and Group D levels.

The important fact is that most of those, who pass the Secondary School Examination, stay within their states of domicile and they do not go for higher education, unless they intend to go for university education and pursue professional courses. For most persons, the matriculation or secondary school certificate is a valuable & cherished document which they keep and use when necessary.

In the meantime, almost all states have abolished annual class examinations in the school and standards of teaching and of knowledge acquired are judged by the secondary examinations conducted by the Boards. Those who have studied in private schools, particularly in what we call public schools will have an advantage over those who have studied in government or non-approved high schools and left without obtaining a certificate.
The government now intends to make education compulsory for all up-to secondary level. This is a good objective but the lack of Board Examinations and Secondary Certificates will reduce the market, and social, value for the common students.
I request you to drop the idea.

I place an alternative before you for your kind consideration:
A student, who wishes to join university education or a professional course, completes the Plus - 2 course at a higher secondary school. This is the high point of his school career and immediately thereafter he sits for the competitive admission test conducted by institutions individually or collectively. This is strenuous for the students because the two examinations higher secondary & admission test are held within a few weeks of each other. Admission to higher courses depends on the results of the admission test & not on the results of the higher secondary examination. So the secondary school examination may be abolished & the students may be admitted to the written test on the basis of certificates from the higher secondary school where he / she has studied & completed the senior secondary course.

I also strongly urge you not to establish a centralized system with the abolition of states secondary and higher secondary boards. The educational situations vary from state to state. Their job requirements are different. Their media of instruction are different. Constitutionally, education is in the concurrent list but the basic idea was to leave school education to the states, in fact to decentralize school education right up to the Panchayat level. Centralization of secondary education will reverse this trend.

I therefore suggest that you reconsider the idea of abolishing the secondary school examinations and the state Boards, which extend for the purpose.