Excepting universities and colleges, the biggest school in the world is City Montessori School in India, with just over 33,000 students as of 2008. This is a private school that closely follows the Baha’i faith. This school has 20 different campuses spread out across the city of Lucknow and is one of the most respected secondary institutions in India. What makes CMS unique, is its commitment to spreading the value of world peace through organizing large international events that focus on world unity and world peace. CMS has the distinction of being the first school in the world to receive the UNESCO Prize for Peace Education in 2002. Unesco stands for the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. Its mandate in a nutshell is to promote international collaboration by supporting and promoting education, science and culture, but you can visit their website.

The biggest university in the world is Allama Iqbal Open Univeristy in Islamabad, Pakistan with over 1.8 million students. Of particular interest is the role that this university plays in educating women. They have made a commitment to provide education at a low cost to people who would not otherwise have access to higher education; women in rural villages from traditional households, where female higher education isn’t supported, and as a result, the vast majority of their students are female. It has won the UNESCO NOMA award for working at increasing Pakistan’s literacy rate.