4 maritime schools face closure

MANILA, Philippines - At least four maritime schools face closure as the government intensifies its efforts to produce more efficient and competent Filipino seafarers.

Commission on Higher Education (CHED) Commissioner Nona Ricafort, however, declined to identify these substandard maritime schools because they have pending appeals with the commission.

“One main reason why we have to close a school is that maritime program requires a very expensive  laboratory…When you don’t have the laboratory, we believe that you cannot expect much from the students,” Ricafort said, noting that the necessary equipment costs between P25 to P35 million.

She said CHED has been enfor­cing a moratorium on the opening of new maritime schools in the country for the past six years.

“We are continuing with the moratorium because we really need to limit the number of maritime schools. We have not allowed to given approval for the opening of new maritime schools,” she said.

“Napakaraming magagandang building pero wala namang laman, walang equipment,” she said.

Ricafort stressed the need to weed out substandard maritime to enable the country to maintain its stand as world’s leading supplier of seafarers.

The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), earlier, reported that the European Commission’s Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) has found deficiencies in the country’s maritime training education and certification system that could lead to a ban in the deployment of Filipino seafarers in European Union-flagged vessels.

But DOLE gave assurance that concerned government agencies, including CHED have undertaken measures to address the deficiencies.