Once again parents of children at an Orihuela Costa school are accusing the Orihuela Department of Education of abandoning their children. They say they are disappointed and very angry that at least 30 of them have been left without a sports coach for over a week.

All of the children, from the APA Playas de Orihuela, stay behind after lessons to practice their sport between 4.30 and 5.30 pm. The children are members of two teams, one each of basketball and football, that represent their school in competitions and leagues across the municipality.

In the last five months they have had five different coaches but since last Monday they have been left totally to their own devices with no-one at all turning up to provide them with any coaching.

Another Orihuela Costa school has just 2 coaches while the parents claim that in the city of Orihuela there is a pool of 49 sports coaching staff.

The families faced with this situation, say that they feel discriminated against. They say that their children are being denied the right to play sports and that they are unable to do so in their school the only alternative  is that they pay the high costs of the Municipal operated CDM, with private management, that many can ill afford.

Already, they say, they have had to contribute toward the cost of shorts, shirts, bibs and tracksuits.

The parents are also complaining about the fact that when they are late picking them up because of delays at their workplace, the children, who are infants and juniors, have been found abandoned at bus stops, which they say is totally unacceptable and completely unsafe.