Saving the Marine Academy

The Marine Academy has been extensively expanded now to meet the growing demand of the country not only to train the pre-sea cadets, but also to train the country's senior merchant marine officers by the various ancillary mandatory courses, which have been introduced by the IMO (International Maritime Organization, London) in keeping with the requirements of the International Convention on Standards of Training Certification and Watch-keeping (STCW 95) for Seafarers. As a result, the Marine Academy ranks as one of the world's foremost institutes in maritime training and education, which resulted in the Marine Academy being recognized as one of the branches of the World Maritime University, Malmo, Sweden in the year 1990.

Till date,1083 nautical and 1086 engineering cadets have been graduated from this academy. A number in the region of 14,000 officers and ratings have received the IMO mandatory safety courses and/or training. It is estimated that the country is earning a sum of $50 million per year due to these trained officers employed in overseas shipping companies. Besides, the country's national merchant fleet is totally run by these highly

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qualified and competent merchant marine officers.

To run such a big technical centre of excellence smoothly one needs its full complement of teaching staff, better to mention as the professional instructors. As per the orgonagram, the academy requires a minimum of nine nautical instructors and five engineering instructors. During the last four or five years, the academy was run with only two nautical instructors instead of nine, and currently the academy has only one.

Not to mention the other prevailing problems, it is hard to visualize how it is possible to achieve the required standard with only one professional instructor in the nautical branch. The condition in the engineering branch is the same -- not enough qualified instructors. Knowing the fact that the remuneration and related perks are on the lower side in the academy, any instructor who joins the academy with the intention of choosing a career in maritime education will find it difficult to keep up his commitment due to the bureaucratic tangles he will find in his path, and will most likely move on.

There was a good move by the government and concerned parties a few years ago to introduce a scheme by the name of the "deferred credit scheme" with the intention to get some professional instructors paying them some enhanced salary (to recruit on contract basis). Some experienced master mariners joined due to this scheme and the training was kept going even though the number of instructor was lower than needed. This scheme produced a moderately good result, but the scheme is now on the verge of being abolished due to unknown or unstated reasons. The contracts are not being renewed, resulting in the instructors leaving.

Every member of the shipping community is concerned by the dwindling condition in numbers of professional instructors at the academy, leading to deterioration of the quality of the education offered, lest our good image in the international maritime field, and the acceptance of our passed out cadets from this academy, will come into question.

In a country where thousands if not millions of young people are unemployed, and the marine academy can be a good potential avenue of attracting the youths to this profession, and when lots are just waiting to join, we cannot ignore or keep aside this simple problem of not getting the right people in the right place to do the job.

The concerned authority should look into the matter without wasting further time:

In this regard may I suggest the following:

1) The "deferred credit scheme" to appoint professional instructors on contract basis should continue until the posts are filled up by permanent instructors.

2 ) Some experienced master mariners and chief engineers can be sent from Bangladesh Shipping Corporation on deputation to the Marine Academy for lecturing.

3) In the meantime, the authorities should arrange to recruit professional instructors through PSC (Public Service Commission).

4) A permanent commandant should be sent to the academy. In the last six months there have been three different commandants

5) The governing body of the academy may meet with the representatives of user forum (who employ passed out cadets), some experts on this sector, retired commandants, ex-cadets forum, cadets guardians, etc. and such meeting can review once or twice a year to enhance the overall quality of maritime education and remedy of prevailing problems.

6) To strictly adopt and adhere to quality management system.

We have such a prestigious, internationally highly acclaimed maritime educational institution, that the nation can be proud of. It is the only one of its kind in the country, and it would be a shame to lose it simply due to lack of attention on the part of the authorities.

Capt. Mohammad Ali was a nautical instructor and later was promoted to Chief of Nautical Studies in the Marine Academy on contract basis.