As a small island country, Mauritius is relying on its human capital and innovative hi-tech industry to ensure future economic viability in the global market. As such, Mauritian education authorities are seeking ways to raise educational standards. One government’s reform idea being canvassed is that Total Quality Management (TQM) could provide the framework for Mauritian school leaders to deliver imperatives for change and improvement so as to achieve ‘world-class quality education.’ However, whilst there is a burgeoning literature on TQM and a quality culture in education, little research attention has been paid to the practical processes of implementing TQM concepts in realizing and sustaining quality in schools, and when this has been done it has tended to be limited to higher education institutions. Moreover, no research has covered this topic in the Mauritian context. This research focuses on investigating Mauritian principals’ perceptions, from an under-researched ethical leadership perspective, about school and systemic improvement and the usefulness of TQM tenets in raising educational standards in schools. Significantly, what emerged from the research is a conceptual framework including a complementary set of guiding principles of success, informed by a thorough literature review of the field and capturing school principals’ pertinent ideas that might inform future research and possible collective action for continual quality improvement. The research presents signposts for challenges and opportunities that would be worthy of debate, from an ethical school leadership perspective, in the quest for increased student achievement and well-being.