The participation of students from schools in the Algarve in the National School Championships for Beginners, in Braga, it was even canceled due to lack of funds, but last-minute steps made it possible to find the means to take young athletes to the North of the country.. Even so, many students ended up giving up on participating in the competition, due to the uncertainty that was generated hours before the match, which had to be postponed.
O Sul Informação spoke with one of the teachers who will accompany students to the North of the country. Ana Filipa Antunes is currently aboard a bus originally chartered by the Câmara de Faro, but that it will not be paid by this entity, as the Regional Delegation of Education says it will assume the costs.
On board, the spirit of the students is the best, despite the disappointment they felt when they were told that, after all, they would not be able to compete in the Nacional, a situation that has since been unlocked. “The students are very enthusiastic, of course. The parents are the ones who are unhappy», said Ana Filipa Antunes.
This led to many students eventually giving up on participating. “Some parents are apprehensive, after the situation that was generated. In my team, three of the 13 elements dropped out», revealed the teacher of Rhythmic and Expressive Activities at Escola Secundária Tomás Cabreira, from Faro.
On the bus that left the Algarve capital around 12:30 pm there were 16 students, when there were 31 athletes from Faro calculated for the Nationals. Even taking into account that two students will have Braga, almost half of the expected participants stayed at home. The bus also passed in Olhão and Tavira, to collect more elements of the Algarve delegation, and in both cases it picked up fewer people than expected.
In Tavira, you know the Sul Informação, there was a school that dropped out of participating, in addition to other students who chose not to travel.
“It is a considerable breach in our participation. As we're leaving late, we'll get there at dawn, as it's many hours on the way. Then we still have to settle in and settle down. I think that only around 3 or 4 hours will we be able to go to bed. And at 8:00 am tomorrow [Friday] we have to be on foot for breakfast…», illustrated Ana Filipa Antunes.
Like Sul Informação advanced, the schools and parents of the students who were going to leave this Thursday from the Algarve to Braga, where the National School Sports of 2018 will take place, were informed this Wednesday, June 27, at around 21 pm, that the trip had been canceled for lack of funds. This was when the departure for the North was scheduled for 00:9 am today, Thursday.
The situation left the concerned students devastated and caused a wave of indignation, not only among parents and guardians, but also among school communities and other sectors of society.
The order will have been issued by the General Directorate of School Establishments, but it was amended already during the morning of this Thursday. This motivated, even so, considerable delays in the athletes' departure time.
Before this decision is taken, the Chamber of Faro hired a bus from the EVA company, to ensure that, at least, the municipality's students were present at what Faro local authority president Rogério Bacalhau described as “the final gala of school sports”.
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