Eleven ex-militants on maritime skill acquisition in Poland have been sent to Nigeria for their inability to meet the academic standard of the institution, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports.
The students were among the 22 admitted to the Polish Maritime Academy in July for a two-year programme to study various courses, ranging from navigation to maritime science.
Polish Ambassador to Nigeria Przemyslaw Niesiolowski, who spoke to NAN, said the students could not cope with the school curriculum as they lacked the will to study, and had no basic education on maritime before proceeding for the course.
Niesiolowski, who regretted the development, said the institute observed “that the students attitude towards the programme was not encouraging, as they had undesired interest to be there and could influence and distract others from the course.”
However, he said the development would not affect the Nigeria-Polish partnership on maritime, a platform under which the students are being sponsored by the Polish government.
The envoy said: “Others who show genuine interest and can cope with the course will be encouraged.”
To avoid a recurrence, he said applicants for admission would undergo an entrance examination to ascertain the level of their background knowledge on maritime, and ability to cope with the programme.
“With this in place, I see a positive outcome of the exercise, because the programme itself is result-oriented. ’’
NAN reports that the students are the first batch of beneficiaries of the amnesty programme to be sent to Poland.
Nigeria and Poland established diplomatic ties in 1960, and have various bilateral agreements in place.
Sep122011