Hanoi (VNA) – The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, in coordination with the Office of the ASEAN Senior Officials on the Environment (ASOEN) in Vietnam and relevant units, held a ceremony on October 14 to launch the ASEAN Eco-Schools Vietnam Award 2024.
Representatives from nearly 100 schools in Hanoi attended the event in person, while those from over 200 school across the country joined online.
The award winners are to be selected based on three criteria that include their action plan and specific programme on environmental protection; curriculum and main and extracurricular activities on the environment; facilities and environmental protection activities in the community. Entries must be submitted by November 10, 2024 at www.ecoschool.vn, and also sent to the email ecoschoolsvietnam@gmail.com.
The ASEAN Eco-schools Award is one of the activities under the framework of the ASOEN assigned to each country to organise. The winning schools will be honoured on the sidelines of the ASOEN Conference or the ASEAN Ministerial Meeting on the Environment.
Held every four years, the award is presented to outstanding primary and secondary schools in ASEAN member countries to recognise those with best practices in the green school programme and encourage the participation of other schools in implementing green initiatives. The first ASEAN Eco-schools Award was held in Malaysia in July 2012.
Speaking at the launch ceremony, Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Le Cong Thanh emphasised that students play a particularly important role in environmental protection. They not only directly carry out specific actions in their daily lives to protect the environment but also help spread the message of environmental protection to family, friends and the community, becoming positive role models that encourage adults to think and act for the environment./.