Education plays a major role in society’s growth and progress. It is one of the most powerful weapons, which has the potential to change the future of humanity. Educated people contribute significantly to the economy and society and help to create a more sustainable and stable economy.
Education is the ultimate solution to many global problems, such as poverty, unemployment and terrorism. As per reports, 65% of educators globally are looking for new ways to make their lectures more engaging and improve the teaching-learning process.
One of the major problems the education sector is dealing with is the use of traditional methods, age-old syllabi and lack of innovation. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has developed ISO 21001 Certification – Educational Organization Management System standard that offers new tools and techniques to educational institutions to enhance their teaching-learning process.
What is ISO 21001Certification?
ISO 21001 Certification outlines the requirements for an Educational Organization Management System standard. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has developed ISO 21001 Certification to establish an effective Educational Organization Management System (EOMS).
It provides a framework for establishing EOMS and focuses on establishing adequate interaction between an educational organization, the learner, customers and other beneficiaries. It offers tools for educational institutions to enhance their services. It strengthens the teaching-learning process and focuses on meeting learner’s requirements and needs.
Benefits of ISO 21001 Certification
The Educational Organization Management System promotes an innovative and constructive environment to ensure the overall development of the learners. It enables an organization to provide high-quality instructions and independent measures to review and monitor the quality of education. An educational organization can reap the following benefits by implementing ISO 21001 Certification.
The benefits of ISO 21001 standards are:
- Provides tools for educational organizations to align their objectives and activities with the EOMS policy and improves the quality of education.
- Promotes equitable growth and makes education accessible for all. It focuses on establishing inclusive institutions and child-centric classrooms to cater needs and requirements of individual learners.
- Makes an educational organization more credible and reliable.
- Harmonizes various local, national and international standards in a single framework and offers a holistic approach.
- Focuses on the interaction between educational institutions, the learners and third parties and promotes collaborative partnership.
Ways in which ISO 21001 help educational institutes to face current challenges
ISO 21001 Certification – Educational Organization Management System works on 11 principles and offers tools to improve the teaching and learning process. These 11 principles of EOMS are:
- Focus on learners and other beneficiaries – It primarily focuses on meeting the needs and requirements of the learners and other beneficiaries and exceeding their expectations.
- Visionary leadership – The top-level management plays a crucial role in defining the scope, mission and vision of the organization. EOMS requires engaging all the learners and beneficiaries in determining the organization’s vision, mission and objectives.
- Engagement of people – It involves learners and other beneficiaries in determining policies and procedures; however, it also ensures that the parties involved are competent, valuable and empowered enough to take the right decisions.
- Process approach – It follows a process-based approach. It focuses on establishing interactive classrooms and uses methods like brainstorming, group discussion and re-writing to promote language development. It establishes a coherent system and focuses on achieving predictable and desired outcomes and
- Improvement – To obtain the desired outcomes and objectives, an organization needs to follow the principle of continual improvement.
- Evidence-based decisions – It evaluates and reviews the collected data and information to prepare a curriculum to attain desired results. It provides clarity and credibility to the learners and other beneficiaries, leading to greater objectivity and confidence in decision-making.
- Relationship management – It follows the relationship management principle and requires establishing good relationships with interested parties, beneficiaries, and stakeholders to sustain success.
- Social responsibility – To ensure the long-term success and sustainability of the organization. Every organization, including NGOs, corporates and educational institutions, has some responsibility toward society. Educational institutions are responsible for all the procedures and processes that impact the public and society.
- Accessibility and equality – It enhances the transparency and accountability of educational institutions and focuses on creating more flexible and inclusive institutions to address the needs and requirements of individual learners. It makes an educational organization more accessible and equitable.
- Ethical conduct in education – It encourages an educational institution to adopt and follow an ethical professional environment. It offers appropriate tools and techniques to cater the needs and requirements of learners and other beneficiaries. It eliminates conflicts of interest and adopts processes and practices that benefit the entire society.
- Data security and protection Educational institutions collect and store data to monitor and analyse learner’s performance and growth; however, it is equally essential to implement appropriate tools to establish data security. ISO 27001 Certification is an Information Security Management System that offers tools and controls to provide data security and protects an organization from data theft and data breaches.
Conclusion
ISO 21001 Certification is the world’s first recognized Educational Organizations Management System (EOMS) standard. It is a stand-alone standard that applies to all educational institutions regardless of their size, nature and location. It aims to enhance the interaction between educational institutions, learners and other beneficiaries. It makes educational institutions more transparent, accountable and inclusive and encourages the all-round development of learners.
