The Assam Secondary Education Act, 1961 (Assam Act, XXV of 1961) was passed to provide for the establishment of a Board of Secondary Education to regulate, supervise and develop Secondary Education in the State of Assam. The Act came into force with effect from 29th January, 1962 with the publication of Government of Assam, Education Department Notification no. 159/61/37 dated 29/1/1962. Thus the Board of Secondary Education, Assam (popularly known as SEBA) came into existence on14 March, 1962. It started functioning with the conduct of 11 year H.S.S.L.C. Examination of 1962. Under the provisions of the Act the Govt. of Assam constituted the Board with Sri S.C. Rajkhowa, D.P.I., Assam as Chairman and Md. N. Islam, Inspector of Schools (Central Assam Circle) as Secretary.
The jurisdiction of SEBA was the territory of the erstwhile State of Assam comprising the entire North East region of the country. With the creation of the Provinces/States Meghalaya, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura and Arunachal Pradesh out of Assam at different times and with the establishment of their separate/own Boards of School Education the jurisdiction of SEBA got reduced. Presently the territory of the State of Assam is the jurisdiction of the Board.