The point should be clear to you – there are no guaranteed ways of ensuring that a marriage will work. Likewise, there are no guaranteed ways to know whether a school is really good. However, there are simple, intelligent ways that we may utilize to determine a possible range of good candidates for a spouse and good schools for ourselves and our kids. This article attempts just that for the latter.

Would you get married to someone whom you do not know and have not met? Some people do. They call this matchmaking. But today, even in most traditional communities, this practice is losing out to meeting a prospective spouse direct. Likewise, would you send yourself or your child to a child in a foreign land without even visiting the school first? It does sound risky, doesn’t it. Unless you really, really trust the comforting words of a personal and sincere adviser, my advice is simply – visit the school first. Two things will happen when you visit the school.

Firstly, you will get a first hand experience of the school - how it looks, how it is run, how the teachers are, etc. You will get a gut feel (or hunch) as to whether this would really be a good place for you or your child. Secondly, you will discover that there are many more schools here in Singapore to choose from. You will get better options and get an opportunity to see the accommodation, taste the food and many other experiences you would not get just from reading this article. You will then get a clearer impression as to whether the school you have read about is really that good.

To some, this option of seeing the prospective bride before the marriage is not possible. This can be due to a variety of reasons with the most common being financial. Some students have only a few thousand dollars for their studies and therefore only one chance to make it here. They got to ensure that they use these funds correctly. There are no second chances.

Recently, I met an Indian student who was working illegally here. He was telling me that the course he was studying was not great. The school’s programme was not recognized internationally. Basically, he was struggling here – with little money and he did not know whether the study here was really worthwhile. To this, I asked him as to how he made his decision to study here. He said he followed his friends – where they went and what they did, he followed suit. Now I am not trying to be cruel here but friends, this follow-the-herd instinct is hardly a good way to decide on what your life savings should be invested on. There are ways, real ways that can help you. The first step is simple – read and apply the lessons from Article 2: Catching the Foreign Agent Who Cheats.

As a guideline, schools with SQC (Singapore Quality Class) and Casetrust awarded to them are “safe”. There are 296 schools with Casetrust and 55 with both SQC and CaseTrust. If you therefore register at a school with CaseTrust and SQC, this means that these schools have passed the checks and tests set by the Singapore government agencies. However, it does not guarantee that the schools will always pass these tests in the future.

Another guideline you may want to use is whether the school pays GST. Are the schools GST registered? GST stands for Goods and Services tax and only companies with a revenue of more than one million Singapore dollars must register for GST. So what is so important about GST? Well, some CaseTrusted schools may have a revenue of less than a million dollars and they are therefore small schools. Small schools would generally be less stable than bigger schools (though no always so). So do ask the school whether they are GST registered? If they claim to be so, check to see whether it is really a GST-registered company.

Well, if the school of your choice has SQC, CaseTrust and is GST registered, you should feel safer. However, having SQC, CaseTrust and GST status does not mean the school cannot fail you. Read the following article about Nanyang Institute of Management’s (a school with SQC) fall (http://www.spring.gov.sg/newsarchive/news/releases/04_04_14.html). The point here is this – the Singapore government has done all it can to ensure that the schools here are up to the mark. But it is really up to you (the student) to help yourself beyond that.

More strategies needed? Well, I have 2 more. Firstly, if you have friends or acquaintances who have studied in Singapore, meet them and ask their advice. (Note asking the agents who have a vested interest in closing the sale may not be a wise move.) Ask your friends - Which schools are good? Which schools are not good? Do they have schools to recommend? Why did they find the schools they studied at good? Meet more people and soon you will get a list of qualities and concerns you have to look out for. Then you are ready for step 2 – call the school. Yes, you may need to spend some money here. But isn’t it better to lose a few dollars rather than a few thousand dollars? Prepare a list of questions and practise asking those questions if you feel low on confidence. Then once you are pumped up, make the call to your prospective schools. Ask for email address, website addresses and so on. By the end of the day, you should get a much clearer picture of the school you should get apply for.

All the best!