Education - as defined in Singapore. Can we make education better inSingapore?

What is education? 

A lot of the people view education as a one way communication where the teacher or trainer will pass on knowledge to the students or trainees. 

I see education as a two way conversation where the teacher or trainer will interact with the students or trainees and have a meaningful discussion creating a sharing session. 

Education should be a win-win situation among parties where learning is mutual. The teacher or trainer can learn more about how the students or trainees think and implement more effective teaching or training methology; they can also have more insights or takeaways when the students and trainees ask interesting questions that the teacher or trainer probably never thought about before (the list goes on). Students or trainees can then learn more when the trainers introduce new teaching materials and implement new creative ways of delivering the materials. Indeed, that would create a positive learning cycle! 

Although it is true that every minute is very previous during a lesson, discussion and interaction might lead to a more productive outcome. The common reason we hear from teachers or trainers on why they dare not deviate from the syllabus is because they have tight deadlines on their deliverables so that the students can score in their exam. After all, the scores that're reflected on the exam script is the teacher's or trainer's KPI. We get the complain that there are simply too much to cover in a tuition class to even joke with the students since parents who engage them are always more concerned about the end results than the process of learning. 

That is the sad truth in Singapore where the whole society is so competitive and result-oriented that it seems that nothing else matters. In fact, there is a lot of debate on whether the education system in Singapore has caused students to lose interest in learning but instead created a culture where people are more interested in only the end results. Is education supposed to be this way? 

I personally feel that students who love to learn outside the school syllabus generally have more general knowledge. The foreign students I have met are generally a lot more mature and knowledgeable than local students. They are able to rattle off political affairs and why they think it's good or bad and the implications due to the incident/action. Local students, on the other hand, are usually bounded by text book and are very afraid to get their answers wrong. They are always very eager to see their 100% correct results based on the syllabus. Isn't the ability to be street smart needed in order to excel in the society? Isn't street smart more important than book smart? 

How can we shape Singapore education system such that Singaporeans can have a more meaningful learning journey? 

Your thoughts?