If you ask an average student from my college on what is his definition of education, chances are he/she will tell you or imply that education is simply a matter of chalking up A's and ensuring that you ace every subject. If you were to probe further and ask him why he chose the university track, there are likely to be a few possible answers. An university education is sought after and important in landing a well-paying, decent job. University education is chosen as it betters your chances of employment compared to being a junior college or polytechnic graduate.

I hate to be a doomsday prophet or the person to bring the bad news but the university education in the country or at least in my college is not bringing out the best in students. The education system sure is lauded as one of the best and people do send their kids to Singapore to study but it is not the best for various reasons.

The lecturers play a huge part in the education system and if they are unable to stimulate the interest of the students or not able to effectively communicate well with the students, the system in place is almost a failure. The accent of lecturers can be forgiven as long as they can be understood and if they are going to bore the hell out of the students by not stirring up their interest and talking in a monotonous tone or reading from the slides, the university education will be a total disaster.

Most students in my college have a myopic view of the world and their world revolves around Singapore, studies and television which preaches bullshit. It's hard to have a stimulating and engaging conversation with an average NTU student as they are most likely going to provide childish and immature answers or they will try to engage you in a meaningless gossip talk.

It's no wonder that most exchange students get appalled when they come to our beautiful campus expecting intellectual and interesting people and end up getting disappointed having to communicate with boring and not so engaging locals who come across as immature.

One of the reasons in my opinion in the short-fall of the students' intellect is our lack of exposure to a variety of programmes like music, theater, movies, books and people as we tend to keep to our studying and over worship the mass media which is unable to expose us to the different aspects of culture.

Education should be wholesome and not limited to only reading the theories from your coursework. It involves engaging and discussing with people on any issue from studies to politics and exploring the unknown to gain a deeper insight and perspective and not limiting ourselves to what we know because education should never be limited in anyway.