Polish Academy Repatriates 11 Ex-Militants …Over Alleged Academic Backwardness

United States President, Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, flanked by presidential guards set to lay wreaths at the memorial for victims of the September 11, 2001 terrorists attack, yesterday.

Eleven ex-militants on maritime skill acquisition in Poland have been returned to Nigeria for their inability to meet the academic standard of the institution.

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 envoy to Nigeria Amb. Przemyslaw Niesiolowski, who disclosed this to newsmen, 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 against their will and that could influence and distract others from the course’’ .

He, however, 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, adding that “others who show genuine interest and can cope with the course will be encouraged’’.

According to him, to avoid future occurrence of such incident, 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. ’’

Our correspondent  reports that the students are the first batch of beneficiaries of the amnesty deal to be sent to Poland.

Nigeria and Poland established diplomatic ties in 1960, and have various bilateral agreements in place.