A Kathakali artist

commerce or science.
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Upon completing the required coursework, students can enroll in general or professional under-graduate (UG) programmes.
The majority of the public schools are affiliated with the Kerala State Education Board. Other familiar educational boards are the Indian Certificate of
Secondary Education (ICSE), the Central Board for Secondary Education (CBSE), and 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.
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Though the
education cost is generally considered low in Kerala,
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according to the 61st round of the National Sample Survey (20042005), per capita spending
on education by the rural households in Kerala was reported to be 41 for Kerala, more than twice the national average. The survey also revealed that
the rural-urban difference in the household expenditure on education was much less in Kerala than in the rest of India.
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Universities in Kerala are Central University of Kerala, Kannur University, Mahatma Gandhi University, University of Calicut, National University of
Advanced Legal Studies, University of Kerala, Cochin University of Science and Technology, Kerala Agricultural University, Aligarh Muslim University
Malappuram, Thunchath Ezhuthachan Malayalam University, Sree Sankaracharya University of Sanskrit, EFLU Malappuram Campus, and an Islamic
university (Darul Huda Islamic university (http://www.darulhuda.com)). Premier educational institutions in Kerala are the Indian Institute of Management,
Kozhikode, National Institute of Technology Calicut (NITC), the Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology, Trivandrum (IIST), The Indian
Institute of Science Education and Research, Thiruvananthapuram (IISER-TVM) and College of Engineering, Trivandrum (Trivandrum)
Culture
The culture of Kerala is composite and cosmopolitan in nature and it's an integral part of Indian culture.
[20]
It has
been elaborated through centuries of contact with neighboring and overseas cultures.
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However, the
geographical insularity of Kerala from the rest of the country has resulted in development of a distinctive lifestyle,
art, architecture, language, literature and social institutions.
[20]
There are around 10,000 festivals celebrated in the
state.
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The Malayalam calendar, a solar calendar started from 825 CE in Kerala,
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finds common usage in
planning agricultural and religious activities.
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The ongoing campaigning from March 2009 by Praveen JH et al. of the social group PETLA for the proposed
Top-Level Domain of .ker for Kerala, are centered on creating an independent Internet identity for Kerala's
diverse linguistic and cultural communities. They were mostly inspired by the success of the .cat domain created
for websites in the Cornish or Catalan language and Cornwall (Kernow), or about their culture. The Cornish
World Magazine's prior claim for this proposed TLD from 2008, is yet to be finalised and as of May 2014, the
TLD remains unassigned.
Onam