University of Cagayan Valley

College of Marine Education

Chapter 1

THE PROBLEM AND ITS BACKGROUND

Introduction

The role of education in nation-building is vitally

recognized. Every year, millions of students are enrolled

in different courses of specialization to realize their

individual dreams. With the advent of technological

innovations and contemporary teaching strategies, the

education system of the country is overly affected.

Maritime education in the Philippines is just a fragment of

the generally problematic education system of the country.

Most researchers agree that the education system and

conditions of the country is among the most popularly and

widely written research subject. The concept of poverty is

always connected with education. Education, ironically, was

also deemed as the antidote of poverty. With this thought

reverberating in mind of every Filipino student, it is then

necessary to pay particular attention to the state of

education in the country. On this case, the maritime

education system is under explication and scrutiny. The

Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS) in a

published press release states that the country possesses

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College of Marine Education

comparative advantages in maritime education among the APEC

regions. It is surprising to know that the Philippines is

the primary source of world-class seafarers yet the

educational system is faced with various challenges that

sprouted from both societal and institutional setup and

conditions (PIDS,2014).

The Philippines plays a stellar function in the

international shipping and maritime industry with its

position as the principal supplier of seafarers. The

successful placement of Filipino marine officers and

seafarers on various foreign-going marine transportations

such as passenger luxury cruise ships offered lush

employment for thousands of Filipinos. More often than not,

the performances of the Filipino seafarers are rooted in

their early higher education experiences. Today, there are

numerous maritime schools that offer marine courses such as

Bachelor of Science in Marine Transportation (BSMT) and

Bachelor of Science in Marine Engineering (BSMarE) or

similar short-term maritime related courses such as basic

seamans course.

The Philippines has 118 maritime schools led by the

state-managed Philippine Merchant Marine Academy (PMMA)

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College of Marine Education

situated in various regions of the country. These maritime

schools are down to 76, a 36 percent decrease, wherein 42

were closed due to the failure to comply with the

International Maritime Organization (IMO) standards. These

maritime schools strictly follow the IMO model courses as

promulgated by the 1978 convention on Standards of

Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for seafarers

(STCW), as amended in 1995, and are the only ones allowed

by our government to conduct and administer baccalaureate

courses with 3-year academics plus 1 year supervised

shipboard apprenticeship for deck and engine cadets (CHED

Article, 2010).

The Commission on Higher Education (CHED) recognized

and accredited these maritime courses offered by duly

authorized academic institutions. On November 12, 1999, the

CHED released the names of maritime schools it deemed to

have passed the IMO-STCW standards (CHED,2000). This raised

another controversy on how CHED came up with their

evaluation protocol. Aside from legitimate maritime

schools, there are maritime training centers that should be

accredited by the Maritime Training Council (MTC). Both

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College of Marine Education

CHED and MTC monitor the educational environment of the

future world-class Filipino seafarers.

Maintaining the premier position of Filipino seafarers

poses a difficult challenge to face as the emerging

competitors from other continents are making their own way

up the maritime status ladder. The Philippine government

could not be complacent and contented with the present

share of sea-based labor of some 16% but will need to

strive to capture more and increase in number. There is

still room for improving competence and employability of

Filipino compatriots. Should the government will go the

extra mile to keep them abreast with fast paced

technological innovations and advances in shipping. And to

make these things more possible, studying the enrolment

trends of the maritime courses in the country is of great

help.

At present, the Philippines is the source of the

internationally renowned seafarers and seamen because of

the international maritime industry extensively recognized

the country as a source of competent seafarers with a

natural likeness to the sea, qualities of cultural

adaptability, general technical competence, and English

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College of Marine Education

proficiency. Meanwhile, the maritime education in the

Philippines is among the best in the Asia-Pacific region

and even the world. Despite the issues faced by maritime

schools and institutions in the past decades, the maritime

education system of the country could be claimed as

outstanding.

The University of Cagayan Valley, a legitimate and

accredited maritime school in Tuguegarao City, Cagayan, is

among the premier maritime schools in Cagayan Valley

offering Bachelor of Science in Marine Transportation as

among the maritime courses being offered in the university.

Marine Transportation is a maritime course which aims to

the study of ship operations and overall onboard ship

conduct. A Marine Transportation student is armed with the

sense of responsibility, discipline, awareness of safety,

and competence characteristic of a Marine Deck Officer.

Generally, Maritime Transportation students learn the

process of manning and navigating vessels. They also deal

with specific cargo discharge function particularly deck

officers and deck workers. In this program, the students

are trained to be knowledgeable in ship operations

including ship handling, navigation, meteorology, cargo

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College of Marine Education

handling and stowage, and communications. Aside from the

mentioned position, the Marine Transportation graduate can

work as Deck Cadet, Master Mariner (or Marine Deck

Officer), Port Captain, Shipping Executive, Harbor Pilots,

Marine Consultant, and Teacher of Marine Transportation

subjects among others.

Many students are determined to finish this course

because of the offered lush employment abroad. With the

objective to improve the maritime education, the University

of Cagayan Valley provides quality maritime education,

acquires necessary equipment and maritime facilities, and

procures qualified maritime officers to upgrade the methods

of instruction in order to improve the quality of maritime

education. However, many Marine Transportation students

believe that there has always been a room for improvement

to sustain a quality maritime education such as method of

instruction and running-out of highly skilled marine

officers to meet the high quality demand of maritime

education.

Thus, the researchers as future seafarers and seamen,

intend to conduct this study to assess the level of

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College of Marine Education

satisfaction on Marine Transportation of the University of

Cagayan Valley for School Year 2016-2017.

Conceptual Framework

The study will be derived from the study of Helen De

Leon (2012) in line with the satisfaction level on maritime

education and production program as an associated activity

and in cooperation to the national governments efforts of

improving the maritime education system of the Philippines.

With the robust efforts of enhancing maritime education

system and training, there is a need to hitting excellence

in maritime facilities and quality education to maritime

students. The improved maritime education condition paved

way for more maritime business and opportunities both

locally and internationally.

The paradigm of the study shows the input, process and

output of the study. The Input-Process-Output (IPO) model

of the systems theory will be adopted in this study.

Under this model, the input is considered as

independent variables which shall include the profile of

the respondents and other intervening factors, the process

 University of Cagayan Valley
College of Marine Education

as the intervening variables, while the output as the

objective or the desired results intended for the study.

The Process box refers to the research procedures that

will be applied in order to gather data that lead towards

answering the queries or statement of the problem raised in

this study. Survey questionnaire is the tool to be used in

order to assess the level of satisfaction on Marine

Transportation in the University of Cagayan Valley.

The Output box refers to the result of the study

wherein the researchers would assess the level of

satisfaction on Marine Transportation in the University of

Cagayan Valley for School Year 2016-2017.

A diagram of the study is shown in the figure 1.

 University of Cagayan Valley
College of Marine Education

Input Process Output

1. Profile of the 1. Assessing

respondents in the profile
terms of: of the
1.1. Age respondents.
1.2. Gender
1.3. Civil Status 2. Assessing the Level of
1.4. Parents satisfaction of the
Educational respondents in the
Assessed
Attainment Marine Transportation
1.5. Parents in terms of three level of
Occupation dimensions. satisfaction
in the
2. Level of 3. Test the significance Marine
satisfaction of the level of the two Transportati
respondents in the hypotheses. on of the
Marine
University
Transportation in 4. Assessing the
terms of? dimension/s is/are the of Cagayan
2.1. Maritime respondents not Valley for
Instructors satisfied. School Year
2.2. Maritime 2016-2017
Facilities 5. Proposing actions to
2.3. Maritime Training improve the quality of
Program maritime education.

3. Dimension/s is/are
the respondents not
satisfied.

4. Actions can be
proposed to improve
the quality of
maritime education.

Feedback
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College of Marine Education

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Figure 1. Paradigm of the Study

Statement of the Problem

The main objective of the study is to assess the level

of satisfaction on Marine Transportation in the University

of Cagayan Valley for School Year 2016-2017.

Specifically, this study will seek to answer the

following questions:

1. What is the profile of the respondents in terms of:

1.1. Age

1.2. Gender

1.3. Civil Status

1.4. Parents Educational Attainment

1.5. Parents Occupation

2. What is the level of satisfaction of the respondents in the

Marine Transportation in terms of?

2.1. Maritime Instructors
2.2. Maritime Facilities
2.3. Maritime Training Program
3. Is there a significant relationship between the level of

satisfaction of the respondents in the Marine

Transportation assessed by themselves in terms of the above

dimensions?
4. Is there a significant difference between the level of

satisfaction of the respondents in the Marine

Transportation and their profile variables?

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College of Marine Education

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5. In what dimension/s is/are the respondents not satisfied?

6. What actions can be proposed to improve the quality of

maritime education?

Hypothesis

The study will be guided by the hypotheses which

states that:

1. There is no significant relationship between the level of

satisfaction of the respondents in the Marine

Transportation assessed by themselves in terms of the above

dimensions.
2. There is no significant difference between the level of

satisfaction of the respondents in the Marine

Transportation and their profile variables.

Significance of the Study

This study will be deemed beneficial to the following:

Commission on Higher Education. The result of this

study will provide them important and reliable information

on the result of the present study. They will be able to

share these results other academic institutions for them to

apply.

Administrators. They will be able to see the areas of

academic service that they should improve and give focus.

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College of Marine Education

12

Also, it will help them look for approaches that will

enhance the student satisfaction on maritime education. The

findings of the study may create deeper awareness on the

urgent need for administrators to consider different

factors that influence the level of satisfaction on

maritime transportation students.

Maritime Staff. They may be more open to different

teaching strategies with the use of maritime facility they

are welcomed to adopt. This will give them a chance to

discover teaching strategies of their choice and likeness

for better application and performance as to teacher.

Maritime Technician. The result of the study would be

beneficial to the technicians for they will be able to

fulfill the needs of every student when it comes to

maritime practical activities and experiments.

Parents. Parents will also find this study necessary

because it will help them to encourage their children to

study more to improve their knowledge and skills.

Marine Transportation Students. The result of the

study will be beneficial on the part of the students

because they are the direct beneficiaries of the output of

the study.
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College of Marine Education

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Researchers. This research makes a contribution to the

existing body of knowledge and to theory development and

confirmation since there is a lack of research studies on

satisfaction level on Marine Transportation.

Future Researchers. Findings of this study may somehow

provide future researchers with information variables they

will use in similar researches.

Scope and Delimitation

The study will focus on the satisfaction level of the

respondents in the Marine Transportation of the University

of Cagayan Valley for School Year 2016-2017. This study

will be limited to one hundred fifty (150) respondents

which will be randomly selected from Third Year Level BS

Marine Transportation students. A purposive sampling will

be applied in selecting the sample size of the population.

The study will be conducted during the 2 nd Semester of

School Year 2016-2017.

This study will focus on the profile variables of the

respondents, Maritime Instructors, Maritime Facilities and

Maritime Training Program.

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College of Marine Education

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Definition of Terms

In order to understand further this research by the

readers, the terms used are operationally defined.

Level of Satisfaction. It refers to the degree of

happiness about the service expectation, or the difference

between student perception and expectations of services.

Maritime Facility. It is a facility or room where

tools and equipments are located for the purpose of doing

experimentation and tests in order to acquire new

knowledge.

Maritime Instructor. It refers to the maritime

teachers who provide quality maritime education in the

university.
Maritime Technicians. These are skilled workers that

works with complex systems or perform highly technical

mechanical test in the maritime school.

Marine Transportation. It is a maritime course offered

at the University of Cagayan Valley which means to the

study of ship operations and overall onboard ship conduct.

Maritime Training Program. It refers to the program of

instruction of the maritime school offered for the duration

of the school year for the students to learn.

Marine Transportation Student. It is a person,

regardless of his/her age and sex who is taking up Bachelor

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College of Marine Education

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of Science in Marine Transportation and officially enrolled

of the University of Cagayan Valley for School Year 2016-

2017.