Under the Sails of Maritime Education

Here in Szczecin "the maritime education" means a real working education model, resulting in positive effects both for the teachers and other people for whom the sea is passion, including pupils and alumni. Yachting becomes a style of living for many. Young citizens participate in the Maritime Education of Children and Youth Programme implemented in Szczecin, probably the only one arranged in Poland on such a large scale. Developed for 10 years now by the City Department of Education and Physical Culture with the West-Pomeranian Yachting Association, the Programme gathered nearly 75 educational institutions of all types, starting from kindergartens, through grammar schools, special posts, institutions and yachting clubs for youth.

More than 10 thousand children have been covered by the programme, of which 800 pupils annually are winners of competitions and contests, or awarded prizes in form of participation in various forms of training on water, from voyages on board the pleasure boats across the port, through first steps in yachting training on the Dabie Lake, to the most desired sea voyages on the City's flagship " The Gift of Szczecin " or on the tall ship the " Captain Glowacki". For fifteen years the future "sea dogs" have been acquiring theoretical knowledge also in the "Radio School under The Sails" - the weekly live programme broadcast by the Polish Radio Szczecin. Some program graduates are at present students of the Maritime Academy, the Szczecin Technical University or the University of Szczecin, with sailing licences, and they keep taking part in voyages covered by the program, but now as tutors and carers. This continuity of activities, from preschool pupils to secondary school graduates and students, combined with rehabilitation character of the programme and with gathering around it a great number of teachers-volunteers is the main achievement. Every year they keep sailing further, under the sails of maritime education in a dozen or so Baltic voyages rounding up to nearly a hundred for 10 years. The tenth anniversary of the programme, the 35th anniversary of the "Gift of Szczecin", the 60th anniversary of the Polish yachting in Szczecin - it is a good occasion to sail still further to the North Sea, to the Atlantic Ocean, around the world. Before all this happens, one can take part in the races such as the

Tall Ships' Race. Numerous tall ships from Szczecin participated in this year's event along the route: Antwerp-Aalborg -Stavanger-Cuxhaven. Among them the "Gift of Szczecin", with the maritime-educated crews on board, promoted Szczecin - the host port of the 2007 Tall Ships' Race. Large-sized tall ships and great "Tall Ships' Race" will be also the subject of competitions and contents in the new school year, giving the prize winners a chance for a next sea adventure.