Educational systems currently operate within an environment of rapid social, economical and technological changes. Such changes are expected to continue for the foreseeable future, as a result of restructured economic and social policies, globalization and enhanced worldwide communication.

Educational reform initiatives, new technology and other ancillary factors raise concern for quality in education. As a result national education is coming under increasing scrutiny with a view to cost containment and quality improvement.

Sustainability and credibility of school and eventually the school education system depend on good quality assurance mechanisms, which are responsive to the needs of society and the national economy. Keeping in mind the concern for quality Education Quality Foundation of India, has taken the initiative to devise standards for school accreditation under the nomenclature "Accreditation Standards for Quality Assurance in School Education".

Accreditation is a single most important approach for improving the quality of education. In the process institutional resources are evaluated periodically to ensure quality in-service is provided to children. In keeping with this, EQFI has designed seven standards which are supported by sixty indicators. These standards are regarded as optimal and achievable and are designed to encourage continuous improvement effort within the accreditated organisation. A fundamental tenant to this approach of educational quality evaluation is that every system and process in the organization produces information which when collected and analyzed can lead to improvement in the system and process.

Accreditation should not be misconstrued with recognition. While recognition is a certificate accorded to school on the basis of preparedness to offer educational programs, accreditation is grading of schools on the basis of various quality indicators by evaluating the mechanism and outcomes of the programme offered by it.

The benefits derived of this process would be that the school works to improve its systems and processes to increase school wide effectiveness and enhance student learning. Accreditation is thus a process of recognizing and assessing educational institutions for their standards performance, integrity and quality.

Schools that will be accredited are committing to strive for excellence through a process of ongoing review to strengthen and improve the effectiveness of the organisation and quality of instruction and learning.