Development and application of a participatory training programme on environment education for young people in a rural community in Vietnam

Abstract

A participatory training programme on environment education was developed and applied to 103 junior and senior high school students in a rural community in Vietnam. The programme was aimed at spreading local good practices in both living conditions and community environment. A 22-item action checklist covering 3 technical areas was developed and utilized in the 1- or 2-day training courses organized in cooperation with participating schools and local people. Follow-up activities were undertaken to collect improvements after 1 to 4 months. The students conducted 496 low-cost improvements in multifaceted areas about living and studying conditions and environment protection based on 395 action plans. The emphasis of these improvements was placed on organized storage, study conditions at home and reuse and recycling of resources, as also revealed by the factor analysis of improvement actions. It was confirmed that environment education of young people utilizing a participatory action-oriented approach is effective due to multifaceted improvements, concise participation-procedures, sustained step-wise actions and contribution to local environment protection. It is recommended to develop and disseminate participatory programmes for environment education of young people.