Marcos wants 83 maritime schools reevaluated in 2 years

Commission on Higher Education chairman Prospero de Vera III said Sunday President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos tasked them to finish the reevaluation of the 83 maritime schools in the country in two years’ time.

In a Super Radyo dzBB interview, De Vera said CHED has committed to evaluate the maritime schools again to check their standard compliance in light of the European Union’s (EU) continued recognition of the certificates issued for seafarers by the Philippines.

He said, CHED had targeted to evaluate 30 maritime schools per year, but the President wanted to increase the number to shorten the evaluation period.

“Ang timetable na ating ipinangako sa kanila ay makakapag-evaluate tayo ng 30 schools per year. Medyo mabigat na ‘yan…pero ang sabi ng Pangulo, baka pwedeng dagdagan ang ating ma-evaluate na ‘yung 30 ay baka pwedeng 40 per year,” de Vera said.

(We promised them that we will be able to evaluate 30 schools per year. That's a bit heavy...but the President hopes that we can increase this and evaluate 40 schools per year.)

“Imbis na tatlong taon 'yung aabutin, baka dalawang taon, pwedeng gawin. 'Yan ang utos ng Pangulo, na 'yung ipinangako nating timetable baka pwedeng ma-complete natin nang mas maaga,” he added.

(Instead of the evaluation taking three years, maybe it can be finished in two years. The President ordered us to finish earlier the timetable that we set.)

De Vera said 15 maritime programs were already shut down last year for being non-compliant with the standards.

CHED earlier expressed readiness to coordinate with maritime schools and the Maritime Industry Authority (MARINA) to implement reforms suggested by the EU to ensure that Filipino seafarers can continue to work on foreign vessels.

Earlier, the EU warned that Filipino maritime workers may be banned from its vessels after the Philippines' repeated failure to hurdle the European Maritime Safety Agency’s (EMSA) evaluation in the past 16 years. —LBG, GMA Integrated News