MANILA — The country's maritime schools are in need of experienced teachers, the Commission on Higher Education said Thursday.

Some Filipino seafarers were previously at risk of losing their jobs on European vessels after Philippine maritime education institutions supposedly fell short of international safety guidelines.

The European Union later decided to continue recognizing the certification of Filipino seafarers, saying the Philippines had made serious developments to comply with maritime labor requirements.

"It's very challenging for maritime institutions to get very good and experienced faculty," CHED chairman Prospero De Vera III told ANC's "Rundown".

"That is because the pay scale for seafarers when they board ships abroad is just too high for our maritime institutions to compete in terms of salaries."

There are at least 83 maritime institutions all over the country.

• Philippines: 400,000 seafarers at risk of sailing ban

De Vera said the maritime curriculum should be regularly updated and compliant with international standards.

"It is more important to update it in courses like maritime education because technology changes very fast, because equipment gets upgraded very fast. And so if you don't update your curriculum, the skills that are expected from the students cannot be produced," he said.

De Vera said an enhanced curriculum would be implemented in the coming school year.

"We now have to do a lot of training, capacity-building for faculty members who will be the ones to implement the curriculum," he said. "And we have to develop very good monitoring and evaluation tools."

The CHED vowed to continue monitoring the programs of maritime schools.

While the EU has acknowledged the country’s efforts to improve its monitoring, supervision and evaluation for the training and assessment of those seeking to find jobs aboard sea vessels, the Philippines has yet to address at least five deficiencies.

Among these are the inclusion of simulators in maritime schools, on board trainings and the improvement of the issuance and revalidation of certificates and endorsements for seafarers.

As of 2022, there are some 490,00 Filipino seafarers in different parts of the world.

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