Lack of assessors delays evaluation of maritime schools

Reevaluation of the country's more than fifty maritime schools vying for the International Maritime Organization's (IMO) stamp of approval cannot gain headway due to the scarcity of personnel to undertake the work.

This was revealed by Commission on Higher Education (CHED) director for programs and standards Dr. Reynaldo Peña, who said the lack of assessors has left them no choice but to move the reevaluation period.

Originally slated to begin this month, Peña stated that assessment of the maritime schools will instead commence this coming month.

"Due to the lack of assessors, CHED was unable to start the reevaluation on the first week of January. The lack of personnel likewise delayed the evaluation of maritime schools last year," the director noted.

Reasons cited by Peña for the scarcity of personnel includes the stringent criteria imposed by CHED that assessors must posses in order to qualify for the position, such as a Professional Regulation Commission's (PRC) license, their experience or training pertinent for the job, educational qualifications and that each of the candidate should not in any way be engaged by any maritime schools in terms of consultancy or otherwise.

Peña said that last year, there are only 14 people that undertook the assessment of some 70 schools offering marine engineering courses. Seven of them are engineers while the other seven are deck officers who did an evaluation on some 77 schools which offer marine transportation courses.

The CHED director said that this year, his agency is planning to double the number of assessors to expedite the evaluation, in order to meet the February-March target taking into consideration the number of schools and programs to be assessed.

After the completion of this work, Peña disclosed that two more inspection jobs will be conducted, one for next year and the other one for the year 2002.

"During reevaluation, schools might be upgraded to full compliance. Schools and programs which garner a compliance rating of 50-84 percent will face gradual phaseout," Peña stated.

Just a week ago, IMO secretary general William O' Neil came to the country for a three-day visit to inspect the country's maritime training centers.

According to O'Neil, the reports submitted so far by the country in its bid to be included in the much-coveted `White List' of the IMO is still in the process of review.

O'Neil, however, stated that a lot of questions arising from the reports submitted have yet to be clarified and that nothing final has been arrived at yet.

Exclusion of the country from the "White List" will mean the displacement of thousand of Filipino seafarers working abroad. And will also result in loss of billions of dollars from the country's coffers.