LookAtVietnam Bridge - Beginning this fall, sixth – to – ninth grade teaching staff and student teachers will be taught biodiversity conservation as part of a four-year project launched by the Ministry of Education and Training.

The US$329,000 project funded by World Wildlife Fund Switzerland aims to improve biodiversity education in the secondary schools.

In a two-year pilot-project phase, the central provinces of Thua Thien – Hue and Ninh Thuan, famous for their aquatic biodiversity, and Ha Noi, where residents are notorious for dinning on wildlife, will choose teachers from two schools to attend training courses and receive handbooks.

The organizers will hold workshops annually to review teaching materials and develop guidelines for extracurricular activities.

After the pilot phase is completed in 2010, the teaching materials will be corrected and edited based on feedback from teachers and project staff.

Once approved by the Ministry, the edited materials will be supplied to junior highschools in three pilot provinces.

The project was initiated based on the recognition of the great value of Viet Nam’s natural resources and the fact that though the Ministry has an official curriculum on biodiversity conservation for the primary, secondary and high schools levels, no standard guidelines for teachers.

In related news, a training course on otter preservation for 16 Vietnamese, Cambodian and Thailand students and experts took place at Can Tho University and Song Trem Forestry - Fisheries Farm in the southern province of Ca Mau on May 7 to 14.

Learners were taught how to preserve animals, how to take notes and how to supervise the environment.

Currently, there are four kinds of otters in Viet Nam and they are on the brink of extinction.

(Source: SGGP)