The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Madurai News : Grading of maritime institutes to be made mandatory

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Mar 01, 2005

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Madurai

Grading of maritime institutes to be made mandatory

By Our Staff Reporter

MADURAI, FEB.28. "Grading of maritime training institutes in the country would soon be made mandatory by the Directorate General of Shipping (DGS) in order to meet international benchmarks in quality," Ajoy Chatterjee, Chief Surveyor and Chief Examiner of Engineers, DGS, said on Saturday.

It would be made compulsory as private institutes were mushrooming and the public needed to know the grade of an institute before applying.

Speaking at the `passing out ceremony' of the second batch of marine engineering cadets at the R. L. Institute of Nautical Sciences (RLINS) here, Mr. Chatterjee said that the DGS had introduced the Institute Grading System as it wanted to discipline the institutes. Steps would also be taken to ensure that institutes mentioned their grade in their advertisements and brochures.

Hands-on training

A new syllabus would be introduced to give thrust to hands-on training through module-based test and assessments. While institutes that had the required infrastructure could go in for the module system, institutes that did not have the facilities could continue with the existing pattern and would be encouraged to upgrade.

Mr. Chatterjee was responding to the suggestions of the RLINS president, R. Lakshmipathy, that the Government should make grading mandatory and that the institutes should publish the grading.

On improving training, he said the `gaps' could be addressed through restructuring the shore side training and having a `ship in campus' that helped budding engineers.

He told the cadets to remember during their stay in ships that they were the nation's ambassadors and maintain good inter-personal relations.

The RLINS was today presented the `very good' grading certificate by the grading agency, CRISIL Limited, whose head of infrastructure sector ratings, Akash Deep Jyoti, commended the institute's coaching standards.

In his presidential address, Mr. Lakshmipathy said that grading details must be available on the website and those who did not go in for grading should not be recognised by the DGS. " As the details are not publicly announced, the parents and cadets are kept in the dark," he said.

Nearly 60 cadets received degrees, certificates and medals.

L. Adimoolam, secretary, RLINS, welcomed the gathering.

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