Students from 18 Tarn-et-Garonne colleges will compete for one day around a sports and civics course. This 6th gathering of citizens is the main event for the Academy.
Five hundred middle and high school students from the department under the supervision of sixty-three teachers with the support of forty institutional and private partners, the civic gathering of Tarn-et-Garonne 2024 is already old (1).
This annual education, the sixth since its establishment, has become one of the leading meetings organized by the academic inspection with the departmental military delegation (DMD).
“This event that combines sports activities and civic education for one day is one of the academic highlights”, confirmed the academic director of the National Education Services (Dasen) who held with Colonels Fabrice Duda and Christophe Masse, the department’s military envoy and his deputy, a conference for journalists at the Guibert barracks, headquarters of the Montauban military defense base.
Speaking at length on this subject, Cyril Le Normand assures that such a mobilization is “unprecedented in the national territory” and makes “the Tarn-et-Garonnais assembly the largest in Occitania”.
If the fourteen defense departments, soon to number sixteen, are mobilized immediately, several institutions will not be represented.
“We went from 200 to 500 students in one year with two-thirds of colleges participating: it’s rare for such an action to be unanimous,” Dasen proudly points out. The only comparable event is that of the UNSS (National Union of School Sport),” assures Cyril Le Normand.
Two athletes for exchange
Coming from the four corners of the department, and even from neighboring Tarn and Gers, the students will be divided into 63 teams of eight each. They will compete on a course where each team will have to strategize by choosing from forty activities and workshops available to them.
“With the Olympic Games (OG) and the 80th anniversary of the June 6, 1944 landings, the emphasis is on sports and memorial themes,” Colonel Masse points out.
The officers of the departmental military delegation who are co-organizers of the meeting, however, deny any proselytism. “The idea is not to recruit future soldiers, it is above all to share common values such as group spirit,” confirms Colonel Masse.
To encourage them, two top athletes will be present to talk to schoolboys Édouard Bernadou, 8-time world kickboxing champion and Rayane Gamrani, powerlifting champion.
Facing the Valenciennes who won the shield of the civic gathering last year, the proteges of the defensive director of the academy of Tarn-et-Garonne, Christelle Bournat who also has the role of principal of the College Saint-Antonin-Noble -Val, will be in ambush to grab the trophy.