PH maritime education still faces deficiencies

PH maritime education still faces deficiencies
December 2, 2020 https://www.manilatimes.net/2020/12/02/business/maritime-business/ph-mar...

Filipino seafarers are in danger of losing jobs, as the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) saw deficiencies in the country’s maritime education.

This was pointed out by Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin, Jr. during the recent Crew Connect 2020 conference. He said the maritime schools were not up to European standards.

Locsin said that Filipino seamen learn very fast, they adapt quickly to new technologies, but standards of competence are standards of competence, “and if our schools don’t make the cut our seafarers are dead.”

The Maritime Industry Authority (Marina) has been working hard to be compliant with the EMSA audit findings on the country’s maritime education, training and certification system

Marina Administrator Robert Empedrad earlier said that they were looking at 40,000 seafarers who stand to lose jobs.

“That’s the battle we’re facing now with Marina. It’s a tough challenge. We’re faced with very challenging systems and procedures,” he said in an earlier briefing with maritime reporters.

Rommel Pineda, Far East Maritime chief marketing officer said the weeding out of maritime schools that are not in line with standards will leave only the best, thus it can only be expected that they will produce graduates that are of higher quality.

However, Capt. Edgardo Flores, president of Eastern Mediterranean Manning Agency Inc said it must be cleared with the International Maritime Organization (IMO) what is the right interpretation of the Standards of Training, Certification, and Watchkeeping (STCW), claiming that STCW is about training and not education.

“If we can clarify with the IMO about EMSA’s interference in education, maybe they only need to look at the training which is easy to comply. If it’s about education, it would be hard. Even if we comply with the classroom instructions, the last part which is onboard training (OBT), seems to be the problem,” he explained.

Marina said maritime schools are under the authority of the Commission on Higher Education (CHED). Since CHED is the agency issuing the school’s permit to operate, closure and any other action concerning undergraduate maritime programs are a part of CHED’s process. They started closing some maritime schools that did not comply with the standard requirements of Marina.