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Kerala has occupied a prominent place on the educational map of the country from time immemorial. Tamil works of the Sangam age enable us to get interesting glimpses of the educational scene in Kerala in the early centuries of Chrisitan Era. Universal education was the ideal of the sangam age. In the age of the Kulasekharas of Mahodayapuram (800-1102 AD) education efforts received a great impetus. All the major temples had schools or colleges attached to them. Education institutions attached to the temples were known as Salais.The cholas-chera war of the eleventh century which caused a social upheaval seems to have led the decline of the Salai. After the decline of the salai another chain of educational institutions sprang up and flourished in Kerala in the early medieval period. They are the Sabha Mutts which like Salai, were also temple Universities. These institutions functioned mainly central and northern Kerala. There was village schools called Ezhuthupalltis where the non-Brahmin youth got their education. Ezhuthupalli functioned in each Kara or Village under the Ezhuthachan or Asan. The sabha mutt and the Ezhuttupalli took care of the purely academic aspects of education, while the kalari or gymnasium took care of the need of physical education.
Each kara or village had its Kalari, which was presided by presided over by the Panikkar or Kurup. The Kalaripayattu was a regular and full-fledged scheme of physical education for the youth of the land. The plamy days of Kalaripayattu cam3e to an end in the eighteenth century.
The Salais and Sabha Mutts served the needs of the logical education of the Hindus the Muslims had their Madrasas and Arabic Colleges, But is with the church in Kerala that we associate theological education in the modern sense of tehterm. The surgian seminary at Kottayam offered courses in Languages like syriac, Malayalam, Sanskrit, Latin and Hebrew as well as in such subjects as theology and the Bible.
The pioneer work done by the Christian missionaries in introducing western educationpaved the way for the active entry of the State in the educational field in a bigway. The direct activity of the State in the field of education began in 1817 when Rani Gouri Parvathi Bai with the assistance of Diwan Col.Munro introduced free and compulsory education in Travancore under State central. In 1834 on the initiative of Maharaja Swati thirunal an English school was opened at Thiruvananthapuram.
In the Cochin area too a similar development took place. An English School was started at Ernakulam under Govt. comspiices. (tnhe Maharajas College. Today) In 1877 a private English school for the young princes of Zamorins family was strted at Calicut. (the Guruvayoorappan Colleg today).
In due couse more and more colleges came to be started, both by the Govt and private agencies, in different parts of the state to meet the growing demands of general as well as professional education. Among the earliest of the Professional colleges in the respective fields may be mentioned, the law college Tvpm (1874), the Ayurveda College Tvpm (1889), the Engineering College Tvpm (1939) the Swathi Thirunal Academy (now College of Music (1939). Medical college Tvpm (1951) the agriculture College Tvpm (1955) and the Veterniary college trichur (1955).
After the birth of Kerala State (1956) and the enactment of the Kerala University act in 1957 by the first popular Ministry of Kerala State, all Colleges in the cochin & Malabar areas were brought under the control of the only University of the State. Thus the Kerala University act of 1957 transformed. The character of the erstus while Travancore University. University centre at calicut was transformed into a full-fledged affiliating university in 1968 with jurisdiction over the Norther district of the State. Similarly University centre at Ernakulam was also constituted into a full fledged university in 1971.
There are a phenomenal growth in school education infrastructure during the past these decades. No gender disparity exist in school enrolment and higher levels of education girls outnumber.
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