March 24, 2018 – The Maritime High School in Zadar is the first vocational school in Croatia to adopt English as a language of instruction
The Maritime High School in Zadar passed a decision to hold a part of the classes in English, reports ezadar. The trial period for this interesting initiative started on Friday, March 23.
This move was a convenient way for the school to adopt measures recommended by the national maritime strategy, which calls on maritime education institutions to introduce additional programmes in English, as it’s the official language used in international maritime affairs and aviation. While the English language is an obligatory course in most high schools in Croatia, it’s rarely used as a language of instruction. Considering the students of the Maritime High School are likely to one day work as part of an international crew, they will surely benefit from learning their vocational jargon in English.
English as a language of instruction will mostly be used in vocational classes, even though more general subjects will also get their turn to be held in a foreign language.
“Starting from Friday, school staff and students will attempt to use the English language in a normal, informal communication as well. That way, they will improve their abilities of successful language use in their professional and private lives, as that represents one of the most important integral parts of education.
Naturally, teachers of other subjects won’t be grading the students’ English-speaking abilities; we only wish for them to interact and achieve the best possible means of communication in a foreign language, on a level that’s objectively reasonable to expect.
If this project leads to positive experiences both for students and the teachers, we will try to continue implementing it in an appropriate manner”, said the headmaster of Maritime High School Zadar, Svetko Perković.
This is the first project of this kind to be implemented in a vocational school in Croatia. A commendable initiative that will surely improve education quality for the future seafarers – bravo!
