Hanoi (VNA) - The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment held a ceremony to launch the 2024 ASEAN Eco-Schools Vietnam Awards in Hanoi on October 14.

This is one of activities within the framework of the Office of the ASEAN Senior Officials on the Environment (ASOEN) assigned to each country to organise. The winning schools will be honoured on the sidelines of the ASEAN Ministerial Meeting on the Environment, to be held in Malaysia in 2025.

The awards aim to ensure national commitment to ASEAN as well as to promote ecological and green school models in Vietnam. It is also to spread the meaning of green and ecological schools, form a network of eco-schools in the country, while seeking and supporting schools that wish to become eco-facilities, thereby laying the foundation for environmental education activities at schools across the country.

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.

"For that reason, I call on all schools (from primary, junior and senior high school levels) nationwide to participate in the awards with the highest sense of responsibility. Hopefully, through the award, we will discover and share experiences with many models of ecological schools, green - clean – beautiful institutions, thus contributing to spreading a sustainable lifestyle and learning, reducing emissions and protecting the environment for all students," said Thanh.

Thanks to the accompanying fund for a green future, the programme is expanded to all schools at all three levels nationwide with a total of 60 prizes worth up to nearly 1 billion VND (nearly 40,000 USD).

The award winners are to be selected based on three criteria. An action plan and programme on environmental protection, a curriculum, 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.

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.

Last year, two schools in Vietnam were honoured at the 4th ASEAN Eco-Schools Awards, within the framework of the 17th ASEAN Ministerial Meeting on the Environment in Vientiane, Laos. Nhon Nghia 1 in the Mekong Delta city of Can Tho was honoured in the primary school category, while Yen Lac in the northern province of Vinh Phuc was named in the list of eco-secondary schools.

💮 To date, Vietnam has had eight outstanding eco-schools./.