DGS Mandatory Course for MMD Failures: What the New Circular Says

A LinkedIn post by Chief Engineer and maritime entrepreneur Praneet Mehta received 209 likes and 37 comments in the week ending 15 March 2026 — making it the highest-engagement maritime post in the sample. The subject: a new DG Shipping circular that is causing significant anger across the Indian seafarer community.

Here is what the circular says, why it is controversial, and what it means if you are preparing for MMD exams.

What the DGS Circular Requires

The Directorate General of Shipping has issued a circular affecting deck officers. The core requirement:

If a deck officer fails their MMD (Mercantile Marine Department) examination three or more times, they are now required to complete a mandatory course before they can attempt the examination again.

The mandatory course is being conducted in collaboration with the Company of Master Mariners of India (CMMI India). It is a paid course — the officer must pay course fees in addition to the examination fees they have already paid for each failed attempt.

The circular applies to deck officers. The exact examination levels covered, the specific course content, and the fee structure are published through the DGS notification system at dgshipping.gov.in.

Why the Maritime Community Is Angry

The objections being raised publicly are not trivial. They fall into three categories:

1. Financial burden compounding an already expensive process. Each MMD examination attempt carries its own fees. An officer who has failed three times has already paid for three examination sittings. Now they are required to pay again for a mandatory course before they can sit again. For officers who are between contracts, managing examination costs on a reduced or zero income, this is a significant additional burden.

2. The Seafarer Welfare Fund exists for exactly this kind of situation. The Seafarer Welfare Fund of India — funded by contributions from seafarers and the shipping industry — holds over ₹900 crore. The explicit purpose of this fund is seafarer welfare. If DG Shipping believes this mandatory course is beneficial for seafarers (which is the stated intent), making it free to officers who must take it is an entirely reasonable position. The fund has the resources. The decision not to subsidise it from welfare funds while making it compulsory is the specific point drawing the most criticism.

3. Compulsion versus quality. The most substantive argument: if the course is genuinely useful, officers who have failed their exams three or more times will pay for it voluntarily. The value of the course — not regulatory compulsion — should drive uptake. Making something mandatory does not make it good. It creates a captive paying audience regardless of quality.

The post’s author put this clearly: “Let the seafarer decide if he wants this course or not. He is responsible for his own career. Trust me, if the course is worth it, seafarers will pay from their own pocket — nobody wants to fail again and again. But let the QUALITY of the course decide, and not COMPULSION.”

What This Means for Exam Preparation

If you are currently preparing for MMD exams — 2nd Mate, Chief Mate, or Master level — the practical implication of this circular is simple: the cost of failing three times just went up significantly.

This is not an argument against sitting the exam. It is an argument for treating every attempt seriously.

MMD examination failures in India are not random. They cluster around predictable problem areas:

Terrestrial Navigation and Chartwork. These sections require precision and practice under timed conditions. Officers who study theory but do not work through sufficient practical chartwork problems consistently underperform here.

Orals. The oral examination is the most variable part of the process. Different examiners focus on different areas. Officers who prepare only the most-tested topics fail orals on the less-common questions. Comprehensive preparation is the only reliable strategy.

Meteorology. A section that many officers underestimate, particularly at Chief Mate and Master level. Weather routing, tropical revolving storms, and synoptic chart interpretation require sustained study, not revision.

Cargo Work and Ship Stability. Calculations must be practised, not understood in principle only. Examination questions test execution speed and accuracy, not conceptual grasp.

The officers who clear MMD exams in one or two attempts share a consistent preparation pattern: they allocate more time than they think they need, they work through previous paper questions systematically, and they sit mock orals before the actual oral examination.

The Broader Context: 4,433 New CoCs in 2025

The same period that produced this DGS circular also produced record CoC issuances. DG Shipping data shows 4,433 new Certificates of Competency issued in 2025 — a 21.1 percent increase from 3,660 in 2024. Of these, 2,373 were new Second Mate certificates.

This number has two implications:

First, more officers are clearing exams faster than before. The pipeline of qualified officers is growing. The competition for berths at the junior officer level is real and increasing.

Second, the 21 percent increase in CoC supply, without a proportional increase in berth availability, increases the pressure on every officer to progress to the next rank as quickly as possible. Exam failures that delay promotion by a year or more have compounding career costs that are much larger than the direct cost of repeat examination fees.

What to Do Before Your Next Attempt

If you are sitting an MMD exam in the next three months:

Start your chartwork revision now. Work one full chartwork problem per day, timed. If you cannot complete a standard chartwork problem in under 20 minutes with full accuracy, you need more practice, not more study.

Build a question bank. Collect previous MMD paper questions — these are available through maritime forums, the Merchant Navy Decoded community, and various preparation resources. Organise them by topic. Track which question types you miss consistently. Concentrate preparation on those.

Arrange a mock oral. Find an officer who has recently cleared the examination level you are targeting. Ask them to run a 30-minute mock oral. The feedback is more valuable than two additional weeks of solo study.

Know the circular. If you are a deck officer who has already failed twice: be aware that your next failure triggers the mandatory CMMI course requirement. This is not a reason to avoid sitting the exam — it is a reason to prepare as if this attempt must succeed.

Conclusion

The DGS mandatory course circular is a real policy change with real financial consequences for officers who fail MMD exams three or more times. The community objection to funding it from the Seafarer Welfare Fund is legitimate and deserves attention from DG Shipping.

For individual officers preparing for exams, the practical response is straightforward: prepare seriously enough that the new requirement never applies to you.

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