As a way of nurturing talented students under the ongoing CBC learning that is continuing to take shape in the country, the Ministry of Education has been urged to embrace marine courses in secondary schools.
This will promote the growth and development of talents for learners at an early stage and will also enable them to make better choices in career choices.
This comes as Pioneer School in Maragua, Murang’a County becomes the first high school in Kenya to start Maritime courses and the second in Africa where learners are introduced to maritime at an early age.
Speaking while touring Mombasa Port with form one students, Pioneer School Deputy Principal Daniel Mwaura noted that during the tour, students expressed interest in maritime careers such as marine engineering, nautical officers, ship captains and many more.
The students who were taken through port operations learnt that Marine courses in Kenya are growing at a rapid rate where initially only 12 percent were keen on maritime jobs but currently, over 40 percent are pursuing to be sea fearers.
Last year, The Principal secretary for shipping and maritime affairs Shadrack Mwandime announced that the Kenyan government is set to recruit 200,000 sea fearers by 2027, as a way of creating jobs for the unemployed.
The PS further announced that the government’s vision of building a trusted Kenyan seafarer is aimed at yielding at least Sh3.983 trillion in remittance over 35 years.
These are some of the triggers that have led the Pioneer School in Maragua to venture into the introduction of maritime courses for students as there are vast opportunities in the blue economy.
The Pioneer School students narrated the experience at the port and most specifically the opportunities in fishing, tourism, farming under the sea ( ) and much more.
Eng. Titus Rotich who has been a marine engineer for many years took the students through the engineering of boats, ships, submarines and other water vessels narrating how important it is to venture into such terming the blue economy as still virgin having not been explored much.
Rotich emphasized innovations and technologies in the marine sector pointing to the need to initiate such in secondary schools instead of waiting for the students to get to universities to learn about the blue economy.
Gerald Maina, a form one student at Pioneer School was excited saying it was his first time to see a ship at close range and to learn about the engineering of ships at (Alpha Logistic -SECO).
Others like George Njoroge and Laurence Wachira also in form one said that the trip to the Mombasa Port is an eye opener to their dreams and they would consider career choice.