School Certificate Maker: Bonafide, Character, Leaving and Merit

By the MuftTools teamUpdated October 2026How we checkSources: Ministry of Education: Right to Education (RTE Act, 2009)

Certificates the school office writes every week

Every school office gets the same requests again and again: a bonafide certificate for a scholarship, a character certificate for admission to another school or college, a school leaving certificate when a family moves, and a pile of participation certificates after every competition. Typing each one in Word and fixing the alignment takes time. This tool keeps the wording ready, fills in the student's details, prints them on your letterhead and saves the school's details for the next one.

It is meant for the school's own office, issuing certificates from its records to its own students. If you are a student or parent, ask the school for the certificate with an application; the school application generator has ready letters for that.

How to make a certificate

1. Choose the kind. "Bonafide, character, leaving" gives letter-style certificates on an A4 letterhead. "Participation & merit" gives a decorative landscape certificate.
2. Add the school letterhead once. School name, address, affiliation or UDISE number, phone and logo. It is remembered on this computer.
3. Fill in the student's details exactly as they appear in the admission register: name, parent's name, class, section, session, admission number and, if needed, the date of birth.
4. Check the wording in the preview. Choose English or Hindi. If your school words something differently, open "Change the wording yourself" and edit it.
5. Add the head's signature and the seal as images if you want a digital copy, or leave them out and sign and stamp the printout.
6. Download the PDF or Word file, or print directly.

The three letter-style certificates

Each certificate carries a reference number and date at the top so the office can match it with its issue register, the title in the middle, and the principal's or headmaster's signature at the bottom right.

Format notes

• Use the school's records. Copy the name, parent's name and date of birth from the admission register. If the student's documents differ from the register, correct the register first through the school's normal process.
• Keep a reference number. A running number such as GVPS/2026/118, entered in an issue register, makes it easy to confirm later that the certificate is genuine.
• Purpose line. For a bonafide certificate, adding the purpose ("for a scholarship application") is common and helps the receiving office.
• Leaving certificates follow your board. State boards and some central boards prescribe their own transfer or leaving certificate forms, with fields such as subjects studied or attendance. Where your board has a prescribed form, use it; the format here covers the common fields for schools that do not.
• Do not hold back a transfer certificate. For children aged 6 to 14, Section 5 of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 says the head teacher shall issue the transfer certificate immediately when the child seeks admission elsewhere, and a delay in producing it cannot be used to delay or deny admission.

Participation and merit certificates for the whole class

After a sports day, quiz, science fair or annual function, every participant expects a certificate. Choose the type (participation, merit or appreciation), type the event and date, and paste the names, one per line, with the class after a comma. The line under the name is written for you ("for securing second position in the Inter-House Quiz held on 14 September 2026") and you can edit it. Pick one of five borders, a colour and a name style, add the school logo and up to three signatory titles, and download one PDF with a page for each student. The PNG button saves the certificate shown, for sharing on the school's WhatsApp group.

Hindi works throughout: Hindi names are printed in a Devanagari serif, and the titles become सहभागिता प्रमाण-पत्र, योग्यता प्रमाण-पत्र or प्रशस्ति पत्र.

Keeping an issue register

Many schools keep a simple register of every certificate issued: the reference number, date, student name, class, type of certificate and who collected it. It takes a minute per entry and lets the office answer quickly when another school or an employer writes to check a certificate. Use the same numbering pattern in the tool, for example school initials, year and a running number.

Signature and seal

A certificate is valid because the head of the school signs it and the school stands behind it, not because of the design. For printed certificates, sign and stamp them by hand. For a digital copy, add a scanned signature and the school seal as images; if the school does not have a seal design yet, make one with our stamp maker.

Nothing you type is uploaded. The letterhead and the last certificate's details are saved in this browser only, so a shared office computer keeps them until the browser data is cleared. Student ID cards for the new session can be made with the ID card maker.

Certificate formats

• Bonafide certificate format
• Character certificate format