The newly constituted Assam State School Education Board (ASSEB), formed by merging the erstwhile SEBA and AHSEC, must be congratulated for its debut conduct of the High School Leaving Certificate (HSLC) examination for 2025. The new board has created an all-time record of declaring the results within just 38 days, in which a little over 4.22 lakh candidates had appeared. Though the pass percentage (63.98) is slightly low in comparison to 2023 and 2024 (72.6 and 75.7, respectively), Chief Minister Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma has rightfully hailed the overall conduct of the examination process by claiming that this has reflected the changes brought about in the examination system. As he has said, there has been a significant shift from the memorising tradition to one based on real knowledge and concepts. As he said, the reforms have also proven to be fruitful because both candidates and teachers/examiners have been able to cope with them. A quick declaration of results is also expected to bring about transparency and responsibility to the education system. It is a fact that the new system has been able to keep pace with the National Education Policy 2020, one which intends, among other things, to empower and shape young minds to contribute in a big way towards making the Viksit Bharat dream come true by 2024. Another positive sign, as pointed out by the chief minister, is that the candidates belonging to the weaker segments – Scheduled Tribes, OBC, MOBC, Scheduled Castes, tea tribes, etc. – have also displayed “very encouraging” results, signalling that they have also been able to cope with the changes. The success rate among candidates belonging to the tea garden communities (plus-50%) is particularly significant. There was a time when SEBA and the universities of Assam used to be the last in declaring results of various examinations conducted by them. As a result, students from Assam used to always miss opportunities to join good universities and professional institutions outside. Corruption and malpractices in the erstwhile SEBA, particularly by a nexus which used to issue ‘duplicate’ marksheets and admit cards (the former for increasing the percentage of marks and the latter for reducing the age of candidates), too have come to an end. What is now important is where the successful candidates (a little over 2.70 lakh) will get admission for the next stage of their educational career. It is a fact that all the colleges and higher secondary schools of the state put together will not be able to admit this entire lot of 2.70 lakh successful students. Moreover, this is also the time for the successful candidates to take the crucial decision of what course of study to choose next.