Certificate of Secondary Education

The Certificate of Secondary Education (CSE) was a subject specific qualification family, awarded in both academic and vocational fields in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. CSE examination were set in the years 1965 to 1987 inclusive. This qualification should not be confused with the Indian Certificate of Secondary Education which is the school leaving qualification in India. Also, in some African and former British colonial countries (such as, for example, Kenya) there is to this day a qualification named Certificate of Secondary Education based on the original and former British variant. Also, the CSE should not be confused with the African qualification CSEE (Certificate of Secondary Education Examination).

The 1960 Beloe Report was commissioned to look into a new exam which became the CSE.

The CSE was introduced to provide a set of qualifications available to a broader range of schoolchildren and distinct from the GCE (O-Levels), that were aimed at the academically more able pupils, mostly those at grammar and independent school (rather than secondary modern schools). CSE's were available in both academic and vocational subjects, incorporated controlled assessment, in addition to examination and when examined question were typically offered in a shorter and more structured form than those found on an equivalent O-Level paper.

Before the introduction of the CSE, the majority of schoolchildren at secondary modern schools did not take an externally set end of school examination, and so left school without any nationally recognised qualification. Though the introduction of the CSE did not, of itself, resolve the issue as the majority still left at the end of the fourth year without sitting an external qualification. By the late 1960s and early 1970s, some counties had introduced their own examinable qualifications for those leaving at the end of the fourth year. For example, the county of Monmouthshire in Wales awarded the Monmouthshire Certificate in Education.

The majority of secondary modern pupils continued to leave without qualifications until the raising of the school leaving age to 16, in 1973, made a fifth year of secondary education compulsory.

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