Boosting Implementation of Education for Sustainable Development Initiative in Vietnam

Making a speech at the ceremony, Deputy Minister of Education and Training Mr Nguyen Vinh Hien noted that Vietnam is quite vulnerable to climate change, natural disasters and biodiversity loss, all of which constitute challenges to sustainable national development. As such, acceleration of education in response to climate change is being considered a strategic mission of the education system. This is also a common task of the political system and the whole society, which should be implemented with high consensus and determination from local, regional, national and global levels. Deputy Minister Hien added that the education sector is making changes to the training programme and textbooks. Contents on sustainable development will be appropriately incorporated into the curriculum, and learning with a view to raising awareness and boosting education regarding this issue for students.

 

According to Ms Katherine Muller-Marin, Chief Representative of UNESCO in Vietnam, in education, training and fostering teachers is a priority for sustainable development. In a learning society, learning methods in an open approach, under various forms and e-learning, will facilitate wider access to information and provide more educational opportunities for everybody. Ms Katherine Muller-Marin believed that Vietnam has a very advantageous environment for e-learning in terms of facilities and policies on education. The MOET is now strongly stimulating incorporation of IT and communication into education activities and learning and teaching realities. It is also boosting and issuing regulations on usage of open source software at all training institutions and areas UNESCO has been providing enthusiastic assistance.

 

Ms Katherine Muller-Marin also emphasized that training courses and materials developed in this initiative will be made available nationwide and experience gained, shared worldwide. Thua Thien – Hue province, which regularly suffers from floods and adverse effects of climate change, and also puts forward the vision to become “a city of ecology, heritage, culture and friendly environment”, will benefit from joint efforts made by scientists, authorities, local communities, schools and media.

 

Regarding the necessity to implement sustainable educational development in Vietnam, Ass. Prof. Le Trong Hung, Vice Director of Science, Technology and Environment Department under the MOET, underlined that education plays an important role in lessening the vulnerability of Vietnam to climate change and disasters. Application of online learning will help to provide wide education. Community participation is the core factor. It is necessary that a favourable environment be established for the implementation of ESD. The MOET is now implementing the process of reviewing and renovating the training and fostering programme. ESD contents will be introduced via new training programmes and existing ones as well, i.e.: Climate change; Preventing, fighting, responding to and mitigating disasters; Energy saving and Sustainable usage of sea and island resources, etc.

 

Mr Le Trong Hung stated that after the completion of the project, a favourable environment would be established for the implementation of ESD via the organization of events for principals, parents, media and authorities at central and local levels, to improve awareness of climate change, minimization of risks caused by disasters and preservation of biodiversity. Particularly, it would be possible to develop an online forum for experience sharing and changing, create a network of trainees and organise online conferences.

 

Mr Wonhwan Shim, Representative of Samsung Vietnam, discussed Korea’s experience and the importance of education in addressing the inequality among peoples and nations. Samsung wishes to set up ladders of hope for children who keep dreaming in harsh conditions from disasters and climate change. Korea already experienced that difficult time and it is time to share this valuable experience.

 

It is known that the objective of the project is to support Vietnam to develop a more resilient and sustainable learning society by: creating an enabling environment for ESD through raising awareness of the challenges of climate change and empowering better responses to these challenges; developing and implementing e-learning teacher training courses to strengthen teachers’ understanding of ESD and enhance their capacities to integrate it into classroom activities for primary pupils’ benefit and to lead the school community to develop disaster preparedness plans; and last but not least, developing disaster risk reduction strategies for incorporation into Vietnam’s heritage sites’ management plans.