Education

Children lining up for school in Kochi

The University of Kerala's administrative building inThiruvananthapuram.

Kerala has highest literacy among the states of India. State topped the Education Development Index (EDI) among 21 major states in India in year 2006-2007.

More than 94% of the rural population has access to primary school within 1 km, while 98% of population benefits one school within a distance of 2 km. An upper primary school within a distance of 3 km is available for more than 96% of the people, whose 98% benefit the facility for secondary education within 8 km.The access for rural students to higher educational institutions in cities is facilitated by widely subsidised transport fares.

Kerala's educational system has been developed by institutions owned or aided by the government.In the educational system prevailed in the state schooling is for 10 years which is subdivided into lower primary, upper primary and high school, After 10 years of secondary schooling, students typically enroll in Higher Secondary Schooling in one of the three major streams—liberal arts, commerce or science. Upon completing the required coursework, students can enroll in general or professional under graduate programmes.

Schools and colleges are run by the government, private trusts, or individuals. Many of the schools owned by private sector are aided by government. Most of the public schools are affiliated to Kerala State Education Board. Other familiar educational boards are Indian Certificate of Secondary Education (ICSE), the Central Board for Secondary Education (CBSE), or the National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS). English is the language of instruction in most self financing schools, while government and government aided schools offer English or Malayalam.

No fees(or a nominal fees) are required in schools run by or aided by government. Fees concerning the higher and technical education are very low; the ratio of recovery of government's revenue expenditure was 2.6% in 2006-2007.

However, the lacking of fees or low fees does not imply low educational cost, as the students incur other costs of several types (examination fees, special fees, material costs, clothing travelling, private tuition...). In fact, according to the 61st round of National Sample Survey (2004–2005), per capita spending on education by the rural households resulted to be more than twice the national average ( 41 for Kerala,  18 for India). Urban India spending, on the contrary, resulted to be greater than Kerala's (74 for India,  66 for Kerala). However, the survey reveals that the rural-urban difference in expenditure on education by households was much less in Kerala than in the rest of India.

The Kerala school of astronomy and mathematics is flourished between the 14th and 16th centuries. In attempting to solve astronomical problems, the Kerala school independently created a number of important mathematics concepts including results—series expansion for trigonometric functions.

The universities in kerala are Kannur University, Mahatma Gandhi University, University of Calicut, University of Kerala, Cochin University of Science and Technology, Kerala Agricultural University, Sree Sankaracharya University of Sanskrit. Premiere educational institutions in kerala are IIMK, one of the seven Indian Institutes of Management, National Institute of Technology Calicut(NITC), Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology (IIST)