Name/Title
Mysore Secondary School-Leaving Certificate (SSLC) of Vijaya Kumari RamakrishnaEntry/Object ID
166Description
Summary
Mysore Secondary School-Leaving Certificate (SSLC) issued to Vijaya Kumari Ramakrishna in 1959 upon successful completion of the SSLC public examination. The document records her attendance at Corporation Girls’ High School, Gandhinagar, Bangalore-2, and notes subjects including History of England and Indian History. In late-1950s South India, successful completion of the SSLC examination represented a major educational milestone, particularly for young women continuing toward collegiate education.
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Detailed
Official Mysore Secondary School-Leaving Certificate issued by the Department of Public Instruction, Mysore State, for Vijaya Kumari Ramakrishna following completion of the SSLC public examination in March 1959. The document survives as a folded printed paper booklet with typographic border decoration, state insignia, manuscript entries in blue ink, institutional stamps, and official signatures.
The cover bears the printed title “MYSORE SECONDARY SCHOOL-LEAVING CERTIFICATE” together with the Mysore state emblem and publication details identifying printing by the Government Press in Bangalore in 1958. The certificate carries Register No. 6658 and records examination completion in March 1959.
Interior pages identify the candidate as Vijaya Kumari Ramakrishna, daughter of Sri T. Ramakrishna. The certificate records her school as Corporation Girls’ High School, Gandhinagar, Bangalore-2. Listed academic subjects include Hindi as second language together with History of England and Indian History within the optional group. Character and conduct are recorded as “Good.” The document bears institutional certification signatures and a dated Secondary Education Board endorsement from Bangalore dated 25 May 1959.
The abbreviation “E.C. & P.S.” appears within the board certification section and indicates successful qualification standards associated with university eligibility and public service qualification under the educational terminology of the period. The survival of this notation is historically important because SSLC completion in Mysore State during the late 1950s represented a substantial academic achievement, especially for women continuing into pre-university and collegiate education.
The document provides significant evidence for the educational trajectory that later led Vijaya Kumari Ramakrishna to attend Maharani’s College, Bangalore, where she ultimately became the first woman in the extended family to complete a university degree. As such, the certificate functions not only as an academic record but also as documentation of female educational advancement within an upwardly mobile South Indian middle-class family during the post-independence era.
The certificate additionally preserves valuable material evidence of mid-20th-century Indian educational bureaucracy, including state printing practices, administrative terminology, institutional seals, and formalized manuscript completion methods used within Mysore State educational administration.
A related handwritten “true copy” of the SSLC certificate is preserved with the original document. Before photocopying became widely accessible, educational records in India were often manually transcribed and then certified for official use. This example documents that common mid-20th-century administrative practice. The manuscript transcription is in Vijaya Kumari Ramakrishna’s own handwriting. Its careful, controlled penmanship preserves a direct material trace of her literacy, discipline, and documentary self-presentation.
