Kerala State Open School aims at distance learning, and gives opportunity for a large number of students to continue their studies along with their lively hood. Open School was setup following the de-linking of the Pre-degree course from the universities. At the beginning, Kerala State Open School conducted courses only for Open regular scheme. From 2002 onwards, private registration for higher secondary course was also facilitated through the Kerala State Open School.
As a part of e-governance program, the Department of General Education decided to automate the Kerala State Open School (KSOS). From 2009 onwards open private scheme has been automated by the IT@School project.All students who have passed SSLC from 2009 onwards can directly apply for the open private scheme online.The software has successfully allotted Open School admission online for 80,278 students who had applied online and 10,644 students who had applied manually.