I HEAR a lot about the Institute of Technical Education (ITE) and much of it is not pretty.

Some call it the point of no return, others imagine it is full of monster students from the wrong side of the education tracks.

It seems some people do not know how to react when they meet an ITE student.

One girl revealed how a relative snubbed her when told she was in the ITE. A boy described relatives who gave him pitying looks.

One mother admitted that she did not even dare step into the ITE.

I visited two ITE campuses last week to see for myself.

At one, I saw a huge sports complex, with a running track, football field and swimming pool - facilities better than those at many secondary schools and junior colleges I have been to.

At the other, a smaller and older campus, I saw groups of teenage boys having a laugh in the canteen, enjoying a kick-about in one corner.

I checked the pillars for graffiti, scanned the grounds for cigarette butts and tried to spot the bad hats in uniform. I gave up after five minutes, feeling silly.

Yes I came across a tattooed student, and another looking all Gothic in black. But you might well see the same at a polytechnic or university. What's wrong with a little youthful self-expression anyway?

What made more of an impression was meeting some very earnest educators, who seemed fired with a mission to bring out the best in their students.

It is no mean feat, considering ITE students arrive with little reason to feel good. They are Singapore's weakest, academically, and have endured school life knowing so for years.

Yet, some of the teachers I met are passionate about giving these youngsters hope, helping them to discover a talent or skill to be proud of, and to spark in them a desire to look beyond the ITE to further their education or land a decent job.

Among them is Mr Tan Seng Hua, who has been in technical education since the 1960s and is now principal of ITE College East. He is known to volley back a hearty 'Yo!' when students greet him that way.

The students I met were the furthest you could imagine from being down-and-out or hopeless.

There was Wany, 21, a footballer who led a group of 12 sports management students to help out at the Special Olympics in Shanghai.

And Mohammad Dzamir, 23, who went to Hong Kong in July for a student seminar and is looking forward to an attachment in Guangzhou in December.

How can I forget Alphonsus, 18, who drifted through school until the ITE brought out the leader in him. As a Bridge Leader, he plans activities for new students. Earlier this year, he and 29 other ITE students went to Laos to build a library for villagers.

These students were enjoying school, had a sense of purpose and adventure, and made me wish I had the same opportunities when I was in school.

Was it all too good to be true? Suspecting I might be missing the truth, I decided to go undercover for a day, donning the ITE uniform and passing myself off as a student.

My guide was the bubbly and helpful Yee Ling, a Logistics student who plays big sister to many. She holds a part-time job, and dreams of ways to keep improving herself.

'I've always wanted to study retail management at the poly,' she shares. Her O-level grades led her to the ITE instead.

Aside from giving the youth a few laughs at my not very convincing attempt to pass off as a student, I was no wiser about what makes the ITE so scary to those on the outside.

Maybe the truth is that it is fearsome only to those who do not know it.

But consider this - most ITE students get jobs when they graduate, or move on to polytechnic, and some go all the way to university too.

The time they spend at the ITE brings out the best in many. They are a loyal bunch, returning to visit their teachers, and some even come back to teach.

My visits made me think about my own, more comfortable journey on what most would regard as the right side of the education tracks.

I started out like many an ITE student, attending a humble primary school two minutes away from my Housing Board block.

But I took a different route through secondary school, junior college and university, because I could sit for hours and pay attention when teachers spoke, I was great at remembering dates (very useful for a History major), and I still like nothing better than to read.

The students I met at the ITE this week were not like me. They are great at learning a task by watching someone demonstrate how to do it.

They dive in and do, using their hands, and they learn. They take things apart and put them together again.

They just learn differently.

It's not hard to understand why few parents would wish for their children to land in the ITE when conventional wisdom equates success with sparkling grades and a smooth ride to a degree.

But many of us book-smart types who take the conventional route to university end up seeking comfortable white-collar respectability.

What I saw this week, and the people I met, told me the sky is the limit for ITE students who dare to dream and seize the opportunities available to them.

Having come up the harder way, they have street smarts, resilience and a streak of derring-do, to reach for jobs that suit them best, or aim to be the next generation of Singapore towkays.

There's nothing wrong with going to the ITE. In fact, there's a lot that's right about being there.