Tourism and school tourism issues constitute part of the planned school curriculum, and given the educational importance of tourism for school-age youth, its planning and quality play a very important role.
The objectives and programme assumptions of school trips are appropriately tailored to the intended subject of a particular trip as a continuation of the institution’s teaching and educational work. It is important that good knowledge of the children’s and young people’s immediate surroundings is the “passport” to organising longer trips.
Many of the educational legal regulations to date have placed tourism and sightseeing issues primarily within the School Tourism and Sightseeing Club, operating as an interest club in the system of extracurricular activities.
When speaking of extracurricular activities in schools, one cannot overlook the lack of budgetary funds to finance activities so important from the perspective of schools’ teaching and educational tasks.
The teaching community of our city, mindful of the values offered by sightseeing and school tourism, undertook the work of running extracurricular activities on a voluntary basis, without regard for financial compensation. The result of the commitment of the educators: Mr E. Małyszyn (Primary School No. 5), Mr R. Binkiewicz (Primary School No. 6), Ms A. Jaskowska (Primary School No. 8), Mr W. Piróg and Mr K. Górecki (Primary School No. 9), and Mr Z. Głowacki from I LO was evident in the high level of knowledge of the participants in the Regional Tourism and Sightseeing Tournament, held on 9 April 1994 at Primary School No. 9 in Bolesławiec.
The tournament organisers at Primary School No. 9 in Bolesławiec, Mr W. Piróg and Mr K. Górecki, put a great deal of work into preparing the event, as demonstrated, among other things, by the school’s decorative arrangements. Nine teams competed for the winner’s title:
- 6 teams from Bolesławiec primary schools (Primary Schools Nos. 5, 6 and 8/19),
- 2 teams from I Liceum Ogólnokształcące,
- 1 team from the Inter-School Sports Centre in Bolesławiec.
The winners were the students of Primary School No. 6 and the team from the Inter-School Sports Centre, and they will represent our region in the Voivodeship Tourism and Sightseeing Tournament. The students (under the supervision of R. Binkiewicz)—Artur Pieniądz, Marcin Chmiel and Paweł Czech—achieved the best results in the tourism and sightseeing test in the voivodeship.
The participants received books and diplomas as prizes.
The local-government authorities demonstrated their understanding of the importance of the issue and will finance the running of some school tourism and sightseeing clubs in our city this year.
One may hope that, with such commitment from teachers and interest from students, sightseeing and school tourism will continue to develop despite financial difficulties, as this is a straightforward way to instil in society the habit of organising simple forms of recreation.