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Who’s afraid of competitiveness? The need to enhance public maritime education with experienced maritime teachers, retired ship’s masters and engineers, was mentioned by shipping minister Yiannis Plakiotakis in parliament, in the context of an amendment providing for the terms and conditions of employment of retired masters and engineers as lecturers at the country’s maritime schools. The minister stated that the experience of retired officers from our mercantile marine will contribute decisively to the production of executives, masters and engineers able to meet the increased demands of the modern shipping industry, making them competitive on a global level. “With this amendment, we recognize the valuable and long-term contribution of maritime teachers in public maritime education, and ensure, for the current and following academic year, the smooth operation of the mercantile marine schools of our country”, said the minister. We will agree, up to a point, but what the minister told us is neither new nor groundbreaking. It is a tactic that the state has always followed in the public schools of the mercantile marine, which some people have renamed “academies”, without, however, actually upgrading them. And we would like to remind you that today there are many young Greeks studying in private “academies” in Cyprus, Bulgaria and Romania… This happens, quite simply, because there are many – too many – young Greek people who remain “out of the game”, so to speak, missing out on a place at the “academies” of our own country, with the result that precious currency leaves for other countries, just because the Greek state insists on banning the operation of private maritime academies. What, in truth, is the reason? Who is afraid of healthy competition? Who is keeping closed those schools that were for decades the lifeblood of the Greek mercantile marine? A famous presidential decree, drafted by the then minister Georgios Anomeritis, remains in the drawers of the ministry. And every minister tells us that he “wants the operation of private schools”. But no one “gets around to it” and the plan stays in the drawers. The “enhancement” of the study programmes of the “academies” and the recruitment of retired officers or seafarers and coast guard officers as lecturers is all well and good. But could it be the case that, in the final analysis, some people are afraid of competition and do not want any? What does the ministry have to say about this? Mr Plakiotakis informed parliament that the Ministry of Shipping and Island Policy would very soon proceed with a comprehensive legislative initiative for public maritime education. “Maritime education is a cornerstone of Greek shipping and is directly linked to maintaining the leading role that our country plays in the global shipping arena. For us, the education of seafarers is an ongoing endeavour to produce high quality new executives for the mercantile marine”, said Mr Plakiotakis. “It’s time to move forward with the necessary actions that will ensure its enhancement so that it can meet this goal.”
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