Tamil Nadu Board of Secondary Education, established in 1910, is under the purview of the Department of Education, Government of Tamil Nadu, India. Up to and ending at the secondary (class 10) level, the following streams of education are offered: the SSLC (Secondary School Leaving Certificate) stream, the Anglo-Indian stream, the Oriental School Leaving Certificate (OSLC) stream and the Matriculation stream. And for higher secondary (classes 11 and 12) there is single unified stream leading to the award of the Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC). The Tamil Nadu State Board of School Examination evaluates students' progress by conducting two board examinations-one at the end of class 10 and the other at the end of class 12. The scores from the class 12 board examinations are used by universities to determine eligibility and as a cut-off for admissions into their programmes.

The jurisdiction of the board extends to schools located in the state of Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu is one of the 28 states of India. Its capital and largest city is Chennai. Tamil Nadu lies in the southernmost part of the Indian Peninsula and is bordered by the union territory of Pondicherry, and the states of Kerala, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh...

. Schools can choose to affiliate themselves to the Tamil Nadu Board of Secondary Education or to other boards-the CBSE or the ICSE

Indian Certificate of Secondary Education

The Indian Certificate of Secondary Education or ICSE examination is an examination conducted by the Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations, a private, non-governmental board of school education in India, for class 10, i.e., grade 10...

-that are authorized to conduct secondary (class 10) and higher secondary (class 12) final examinations and award certificates to successful candidates.

H.S.S. Lawrence is regarded in Tamil Nadu to be the Architect of Higher Secondary Education in Tamil Nadu. As Special Officer for restructuring Educational Pattern in Tamil Nadu and as Director of School Education, Dr. Lawrence planned and implemented the All India 10+2+3 pattern of education in 1978.