Posted by Kendall Raine on August 01, 2001 at 10:22:33:
With all the invective flying about the disservice PADI is propagating on the sport with low standards and denuded training, I'm curious as to how many students the various training agencies flunk. Rather than published statistics from the agencies, which if they could be believed in the first place would probably be polluted with cases where students simply dropped out for myriad reasons (e.g. illness, schedule conflicts, aversion to sand in the crotch, etc.), I'm hoping to hear from the instructors out there who can answer from their experience the proportion of students they either deny certification or encourage to 1) take remedial training, 2) grant some form of qualified certification (other than kids) or 3) counsel to take up another sport.
I'd really like to hear from instructors from all agencies as this query is nondenominational. I have no axe. Furthermore, since answers will be anectdotal, results can't be tabulated or used (correctly) to serve a particular agenda. My hypothesis is very few students flunk. I also suspect of the DOR's, most are encouraged to stay in the course by their instructors, but I have no first hand experience.
Instructors, please enlighten. Many thanks.