Indian Ocean Comparative Education Society (IOCES) strives to integrate the international and comparative studies on education with historical and interdisciplinary, cross-cultural approaches. The Indian Ocean macro-region is uniquely rich of historical events, which in many ways affected the destiny of the educational institutions of the countries belonging to the three continents of Africa, Asia and Australia surrounded by the Indian Ocean. One can argue that even if things change over the centuries, many old circumstances together with new ones are there to influence the different school systems.

IOCES was admitted as a full member of the World Council of Comparative Education Societies (WCCES) on April 30, 2011 at the 44th meeting of the WCCES held at Fairmont Queen Elizabeth Hotel, Montreal, Canada. The WCCES is an international organization of Comparative education worldwide. The WCCES is an umbrella body comprising 45 constituent societies, of which IOCES is one of the regional societies. The WCCES is a non-government organization in official consultative status with UNESCO and promotes research and educational practice involving scholars all over the world. The WCCES provides various platforms through which different groups can learn from each other and promote understanding of comparative education across systems, countries and regions.

The IOCES’ mission is to promote studies and researches on comparative education, in particular on educational institutions and systems of the countries effacing the Indian Ocean privileging historical and interdisciplinary approaches. An indirect aim of IOCES is that to have dialogue, mutual confidence and understanding among scholars and researchers belonging to the Indian Ocean macro-region or who focus their study on it. In addition, IOCES aims to encourage scholars and researchers of its area to join the international scientific community of Comparative and International Education, and vice versa, to favor the realization of international meetings in its macro-region. Given that this mission is consistent with the general philosophy of UNESCO and other UN organizations, and the existing academic societies of the field, IOCES wants to establish structural linkages with them. 

IOCES aims to implement and improve programmes of researches and studies run by academic institutions in the fields of History, Philosophy, Politics, Economics, Sociology, Psychology, Religion, and Literature of Education, beside organising scientific meetings, conferences, and congresses at the international level. IOCES desires to do so as much as possible in all the countries which belong to the Indian Ocean, independently of being African, Asian or Australian and throughout the world.