By Sharareh Raeesi
There are only two authorized private diving and life saving institutions operational in Iran. They have received their authorization from the Labor Ministry and are conducting their activities under the supervision of Technical and Vocational Training Organization (TVTO).
Hossein Aqakhani, manager of one of these institutions said another institution will soon receive a permit from Life Saving Federation and pointed out that remaining institutions are unauthorized and have no accreditation, the Persian daily Sarmayeh reported.
"Some institutions claim to be issuing valid international licenses and deceive their customers by charging them $300 to $500," he said.
Aqakhani pointed out that unauthorized institutions publish advertisements in the press and on the internet to attract clients. He said that the increase in the number of private diving companies in recent years, particularly in Tehran, shows the good market and the public interest in this field. However, he warned that some profiteers are using the opportunity for personal gains.
"One of the common tricks is to offer lower prices than those charged by authorized institutions while the reality is something else. They advertise their rates at 3,800,000 rials for a training course while the official price is 9,800,000 rials," he said.
He added that a trainee should pass 80 hours of training to receive a third-class certification while the duration is 8 hours in unauthorized institutions. He said that the trainees should therefore pay nearly 35,000,000 rials for 80 hours of training courses in the unofficial institutions. "Those who register in these institutions are not given sufficient training and do not pass necessary courses," he said.
Registration fee for diving classes has increased 15 percent this year. This increase was suggested by TVTO. Based on this, registration fee which was 8,500,000 rials last year, is now 9,800,000 rials.
Aqakhani said unauthorized institution have also hiked fees by 15 percent. Reasons for this were the increase in insurance premium, inflation rate and the price of diving equipment.
"Since institutions are responsible for paying insurance premium and buying diving apparatus, they would have to increase their registration fees," he said.
Diving courses are taken either as a vocation or for leisure and each has its own expenses. Sina Valad-Beigi, a diving instructor, said official institutions hold diving courses for vocational training and do not offer them for leisure.
"The registration fee for third-class certification in official institutions is about 9,800,000 rials and second-class certification would cost trainees 26,500,000 rials," he said.
He noted that no training course has been held for coaches in the last four years and naturally the fee for first-class certification which was 25,000,000 rials will now be about 40 to 50 million rials.
He said the registration fee might seem steep at first glance but this is due to the high costs of diving and its apparatus.
Valad-Beigi further said that the fee for the entire training courses which include third to first class certification is about 100 million rials.
However, unauthorized institutions charge trainees 600 to 1,500,000 rials for third-class certification, 1,500,000 to 2,500,000 rials for second class certification and 2,500,000 to 5,000,000 rials for first-class or coach certification.
These institutions charge trainees 5,000,000 rials for diving courses in hostile environment.
Nearly 98 percent of the diving apparatus used in Iran are Chinese made. Mohammad Sobhani, one of shopkeepers who sells diving equipments said most of the diving equipment are imported from other countries and except some minor facilities, we do not produce any equipment in Iran. He noted that Chinese facilities, due to their low prices are considered by the customers while many of them are not in good quality.
"Nearly 98 percent of diving equipment in the market is Chinese. However, Italy, France, Germany , Japan and Taiwan also export such products to Iran ," he said.
He explained that the prices are noticeably different. For example, he said, a complete set of Chinese diving equipment will be around 20,000,000 rials while the German one would cost more than 100,000,000 rials. "Customers should pay enough attention to the quality of the equipments because it is related to their lives," he said.
© Iran Daily 2007
