Established in 1945 as Government Training College and inaugurated on 4th July by Sir George Boag, the then Dewan of Cochin, it remained as an eminent teacher training institute to churn out teachers of excellence. It was at first affiliated to the University of Madras and was later wound up as a measure of retrenchment with the integration of Travancore and Cochin in 1949.

The college was restarted in 1951 by affiliating it to Travancore University. In 1968 the college was affiliated to the University of Calicut. It was elevated to the status of Institute of Advanced Study in Education in 1993 with a view to conduct advanced courses in education, research programmes and to organize In-service training for the secondary and higher secondary school teachers.