Attending the program were Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Le Cong Thanh, Head of Organization, Chairman of the Award Selection Council, leaders of units under the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, representatives of the Ministry of Education and Training, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, members of the Organizing Committee, Selection Council, Leaders of the Fund for Green Future - Thien Tam Fund and nearly 100 delegates representing schools in the Hanoi area.
The organization of the Eco-School Award in Vietnam in 2024 aims to ensure the country's commitment to ASEAN, and will also create an important driving force to promote the implementation of the eco-school and green school model in Vietnam. At the same time, the award is also the basis for nominating Vietnam's winning schools to attend the honoring event at the ASEAN Environment Ministers' Meeting (held in Malaysia in 2025).
Speaking at the program, Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Le Cong Thanh said: "School is not only a place to impart knowledge but also a place to form the personality, awareness and responsibility of the young generation towards society and the environment.
Meanwhile, 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, such as saving electricity and water, limiting the use of plastic products, sorting waste, and participating in tree planting activities; but they are also effective communicators, spreading the message of environmental protection to their families, friends and communities, becoming positive role models, encouraging adults to think and act for the environment."
Through the program, the Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Environment also called on all schools nationwide to participate in the award with the highest sense of responsibility. At the same time, the Deputy Minister also hopes that through the award, everyone will have more discoveries and share experiences about advanced ecological school models to contribute to spreading the green lifestyle, green learning, reducing emissions and protecting the environment to all students.
With the support of the Green Future Fund, this year's program's award system will be expanded to all levels of Primary, Secondary and High Schools nationwide with a total of 60 awards and a total prize value of nearly 1 billion VND.
According to the organizers, the award is based on 3 criteria: Action plan, specific program of the school in the field of environmental protection (maximum 40 points); Teaching curriculum and main and extracurricular learning activities on the environment (maximum 30 points); Facilities and environmental protection activities in the community (maximum 30 points).
The ASEAN Eco-schools Award is one of the activities within the framework of the ASEAN Senior Officials on Environment (ASOEN), assigned to each country to organize and will be honored at a side event on the occasion of the ASOEN Conference or the ASEAN Ministerial Meeting on Environment.
