Philippines shut its largest maritime school
Philippines shut its largest maritime school
29-10-2011
The Philippines has closed down the maritime education programmes of the country's oldest and largest maritime school, allegedly for failure to comply with local and international standards. Ordered closed were courses of the Manila-based PMI Colleges in Bachelor of Science in Marine Transportation and Bachelor of Science in Marine Engineering. Established in 1948 as the Philippine Maritime Institute, the school had grown to become the largest nautical school in the country with its three campuses producing 3,500 deck and marine engineering graduates annually. Over the years, however, the quality of education had declined, forcing the state Commission on Higher Education (CHEd) to suspend its maritime education courses, which accounts for the bulk of its enrolment. CHEd executive director Julito Vitriolo said the decision was reached after the school failed to rectify deficiencies pointed out by the commission since 2006. These deficiencies are reported to involve deficiencies relating to facilities and faculty development
In a resolution issued by the CHEd, the agency said that from the second semester of the school year 2011-2012 the two maritime programmes of PMI Colleges would be closed 'in view of the consistent failure of the school to comply with the standards of the said programmes in accordance with the STCW (Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping) and CHEd requirements'. The CHEd is the state regulatory agency for public and private degree-granting educational institutions in the Philippines. The closure of PMI College's maritime programmes comes on the heels of a threat by the European Maritime Safety Agency to ban Filipino seafarers from European Union-flagged ships because of deficiencies in the country's maritime education system.
Alarmed by the possible loss of thousands of crewing jobs, the Philippines has cracked down on the country's 80 or so maritime schools and training centres. Apart from the PMI Colleges, the CHEd reported that it would close down three more substandard maritime schools. In the meantime, the PMI Colleges called the closure order 'unfair and baseless'. The school pointed out that 'it had addressed all non-compliances raised in recent audits such as facilities improvement and faculty development, including the installation of two full mission ship's bridge simulators in two of its campuses'. The school also said that its legal counsels would take the necessary actions to contest the CHEd decision.
