The success of Singapore's education system is not in how it achieves good global rankings annually, but in the confidence and maturity of its graduates in different positions. There is a desire to improve oneself and an acceptance that all of us have different skills and talents.

Institute of Technical Education (ITE) alumni who have the heart to think of their juniors have shown that life does not start or end after the Primary School Leaving Examination (ITE grads 'pay it forward' by hiring their juniors, Dec 10).

The ITE students and graduates, the supposed "victims" of the education system, are showing parents that expensive tuition is not the sole way to achieve a better future. The value of mentoring and paying it forward provides even more precious outcomes from our education system.

I thank ITE alumni for teaching this lesson to the rest of us.

Colin Ong Tau Shien