What is a school leaving certificate?

What a school leaving certificate means

A school leaving certificate (LC or SLC) is the certificate a school gives a student who leaves it. It is the same document as the transfer certificate (TC): CBSE’s bye-laws ask a new student to produce “the School Leaving Certificate/Transfer Certificate signed by the Head of the Institution last attended”.¹ It records who the student is, what they studied and where they stood when they left.

The new school needs it to admit the child. Under CBSE’s bye-laws, a student who has attended another school must produce an authenticated TC before their name can be entered in the admission register, and cannot be admitted to a class higher than the one the TC allows.¹

Where the school office meets it

• At the counter, when a parent asks for it. Our sample applications for a transfer certificate show what parents usually write.
• At admission, when a new student brings one. You check it before entering the child in your scholar register.
• On UDISE+. SDMS has a transfer certificate step. The school marks the student as “Left School already with TC” or as a dropout, and the student’s general profile must be complete first.² The student then moves to the dropbox, from where the next school can import the record.³
• On the school website, for CBSE schools. CBSE has told its schools to upload scanned TCs on their official website, and told admitting schools to check the TC there, especially for classes 10 and 12.⁴

What the school has to do

Two rules decide how fast you must issue it.

• Classes 1 to 8. The RTE Act says the head of the school where the child was last admitted “shall immediately issue the transfer certificate”. Delay in producing it “shall not be a ground for either delaying or denying admission” in the new school, and a head who delays it is liable to disciplinary action.⁵
• CBSE schools. The bye-laws say a student leaving the school receives an authenticated TC “on payment of all dues”.¹

CBSE’s format for the TC, in Annexure-I of its bye-laws, shows what the certificate holds. The header carries the school’s affiliation number and school code, the book and serial number, and the student’s admission number. The body includes the student’s and parents’ names, the date of birth as in the admission and withdrawal register in figures and words, the date of first admission, the class last studied, the last examination and result, subjects studied, whether the student qualifies for promotion, and the month up to which dues are paid.¹

Fill each line from the register, not from memory. The free transfer certificate maker lays these fields out for printing.

Common mistakes

• A date of birth that differs from the register. The TC must follow the admission and withdrawal register.¹ If the register is wrong, correct it through the proper process first.
• Issuing a second “original”. A duplicate may be issued if the head is satisfied the original is lost, but it “shall always be so marked”.¹
• Sending a CBSE school’s TC for countersignature. CBSE did away with countersigning TCs from one CBSE school to another in 2014.⁴ A TC from a school under another board is different: CBSE wants it countersigned by that board’s education authorities.⁶
• Holding back an elementary student’s TC. See the RTE rule above.
• Forgetting UDISE+. A TC on paper does not release the student in SDMS. Do both on the same day.

Related terms

• Migration certificate: issued by a board, not a school, when a student changes boards.
• Scholar register: the register the TC’s details come from.
• Admission number: printed in the TC’s header.
• Bonafide certificate: for a student who is still studying with you.
• PEN: the student’s UDISE+ number, which stays the same in the new school.

Sources

1. CBSE, Examination Bye-Laws (2013 edition), bye-laws 6.1(a)(iv), 8(iii), 8(iv) and 8(vi), and Annexure-I, format of transfer certificate. Back to the text
2. UDISE+, SDMS User Manual for school users, section 3.7.3. Back to the text
3. UDISE+, Functionality Guide: School Login (SDMS), version dated 9 July 2026. Back to the text
4. CBSE, mandatory uploading of scanned copy of transfer certificates on official website of school, No. CBSE/T.C Uploading/2018, 1 October 2018. Back to the text
5. The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009, Gazette of India text (copy on the NCPCR website), section 5(3). Back to the text
6. CBSE, admission to class 9 or class 11 on account of change of school, 18 July 2019. Back to the text