The Certificate of Secondary Education (CSE) was a school leaving qualification awarded between 1965 and 1987 in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland.

It was introduced to provide a qualification available to all schoolchildren distinct from the GCE (O-Levels) aimed at the more able pupils, mostly at grammar and independent schools rather than secondary modern schools, aiming for places at a university.^[1] Before the introduction of the CSE, the majority of those schoolchildren at secondary modern schools didn't take O-Level examinations and so left school without any qualifications at all.^[1]

There were five pass grades in its grading system ranging from grades 1 to 5 with grade 1 being recognised as equivalent to one O-Level grade C pass or above.^[1] Pupils could take a mixture of CSEs and O-levels.

Cecile Wright, a leading sociologist, found that many Black pupils were entered for the CSE instead of the O-level at an English school. This raised questions over negative teacher labelling to ethnic minorities.^{[citation needed]}

It was replaced along with the O-levels by the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) in 1988.^[1]

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