Sea training institute 'has few qualified teachers and offers too few courses'

The city's only government-subsidised training school for seamen has been using instructors without up-to-date qualifications, according to one of its retired teachers.

Chow Wan-hoi, an instructor at the Maritime Services Training Institute for 11 years until his retirement in July, said at least six teachers did not hold the relevant licences when he worked there.

One of the unqualified instructors taught radar skills, four other taught basic seafaring skills for deckhands and the other taught multiple courses, Chow said. One of the instructors is still with the school, he says, while the others have retired.

"It's ironic that the school employed teachers who had not even passed the examinations to teach those courses for more than 10 years," he said.

He said that the teachers were hired on licences recognised under the former International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers.

But when the convention was replaced in 1995, the school did not arrange training for the instructors to renew their licences.