As the world becomes smaller, and the economy becomes more global, international business standards have been developed so that regardless of the country, customers know what they are getting. These standards have been fitted to education and healthcare sectors too. The most widely accepted standard, voluntarily being used by educational institutes is ISO 9001 created by the International Organization for Standardization, a nongovernmental, international agency based in Geneva.

The International Organization for Standardization, began in 1926 as the International Federation of the National Standardizing Associations (ISA). It was disbanded in 1942 during the Second World War but was re-organized under the current name, in 1946. Since the formal name of the organization, and thus the acronym, varies by language, the new organization adopted the universal acronym "ISO," derived from the Greek word for "equal."

ISO is a voluntary organization whose members are recognized standard authorities, each one representing one country. The ISO last revised the voluntary set of standards in 2008. With more than a million organizations world-wide been certified to ISO 9001:2008, this certification is globally recognised as the benchmark for measuring organizations' quality management systems.

For the Global Indian International School (GIIS), an education institute focused on nurturing global citizens, the ISO certification gives added value for global recognition.

ISO in GIIS

• At GIIS, 3 schools in Singapore and 2 schools in Malaysia have been certified for ISO since 2010.
• 26 processes covering all stakeholders have so far been covered in the ISO certification at GIIS schools
• GIIS has found that ISO has put in place strong integration of prevention, correction and improvement into daily operations. This has enabled improvement in process efficiency, effectiveness, stakeholder’s satisfaction and learning outcomes.