Diversifying forms of communication about geoparks to students

Education to raise public awareness is one of the eight key tasks that the Provincial People’s Committee has set out in the plan to build Lang Son Geopark in 2022. In order to implement effectively, over the past time, relevant levels and sectors of the province have been actively, especially extensively propaganda among students.

On December 8, 2021, the People’s Committee of Lang Son province issued Decision No. 2386/QD-UBND approving the project “Establishment, building and development of Lang Son Geopark in the period of 2021 – 2025”. Accordingly, Lang Son Geopark belongs to the administrative scope of 5 districts: Bac Son, Binh Gia, Van Quan, Chi Lang, Huu Lung with a total area of 3,845.8 km2. In order to well implement the groups of tasks in the project, on December 22, 2021, The Provincial People’s Committee continued to issue Decision 2483/QD-UBND on the establishment of Lang Son Geopark Management Board under the provincial Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism. Immediately after its establishment, the committee built and implemented propaganda and awareness raising activities to all classes of people to understand, especially the younger generation, to understand the values of geological heritage, cultural heritage and the value of biodiversity.

Students from Minh Khai Commune Primary School, Binh Gia District introduced local products to visitors

Mrs. Pham Thi Huong, Deputy Head of Lang Son Geopark Management Board, said: Raising public awareness is one of the essential conditions to prepare a dossier to submit to UNESCO for recognition of Lang Son Global Geopark. Propaganda to raise awareness about the value of heritage for the community, especially the young generation, has been implemented to pupils and students in the Geopark. The young generation of Lang Son in general and the young generation of the Geopark in particular will learn and understand the heritage value of Lang Son Geopark, this is the best way to convince the community to protect and promote the value of Lang Son Geopark. In order to well perform this task, we have advised the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism to sign and implement a program to implement propaganda and education activities on Geoparks in the period 2022 – 2025 with the Department of Education and Training and People’s Committees of districts: Bac Son, Binh Gia, Chi Lang, Huu Lung, Van Quan.

Accordingly, from the beginning of 2022, Lang Son Geopark Management Board has coordinated with People’s Committees of districts and city to open 2 training courses on Lang Son Geopark for nearly 50 staff who are teachers of schools located in the area of the geopark. Carrying out coordination work, the provincial Department of Education and Training has directed its affiliated units and coordinated with related units to propagate and educate to raise awareness about the value of Lang Son Geopark. Mrs. Phan My Hanh, Deputy Director of the Department of Education and Training said: From the beginning of 2022, the department has directed educational units and institutions to disseminate and propagate to all officials, teachers, employees, students in the whole province about Lang Son Geopark. Units and schools propagated through council meetings, information on bulletin boards, websites; hanged banners and slogans at schools, experiential activities, outside of class time; integrate educational and propaganda contents into educational curricula at all levels, specific subjects and lessons in order to create a change in the awareness and actions of officials, teachers, pupils and students about the role and importance of the establishment, building and development of Lang Son Geopark.

In order to implement, the Department of Education and Training of districts and city actively directed schools to carry out propaganda work. Especially, the Department of Education and Training of 5 districts in the Geopark area coordinated with Lang Son Geopark Management Board to organize an online seminar for leaders and experts of the Department of Education and Training, managers and teachers of schools in Lang Son Geopark; organized 6 online seminars for students in 5 districts in the Geopark. Thereby, 5 initiatives and projects of teachers and 17 initiatives and projects of students were presented at seminars.

Mr. Nguyen Hung Manh, Head of Education and Training Department of Chi Lang district said: From the beginning of 2022 until now, the district Department of Education and Training has seriously implemented propaganda and awareness raising about the geological heritage, Lang Son Geopark in its subordinate units, specifically, educational institutions in the district have organized 104 propaganda sessions about the purpose and meaning of Lang Son Geopark to 1,350 administrators, teachers and 7,690 students. Forms of propaganda and popularization include face-to-face and online or through extracurricular activities, activities under the flag, theatricalization, painting, English rhetoric contest… all were held regularly has created interest in learning, stimulated creativity and enhanced the responsibility of protecting the traditional culture of students.

Following the direction of the education and training sector, the schools also organized the display of posters for propaganda about Geoparks at libraries and assigned responsibility to the unit leaders in the management, exploitation and use. Information and knowledge about Geoparks are integrated into teaching by schools in subjects such as History, Geography. In addition, with a student-centered perspective, taking advantage of on-site learning resources, which are cultural heritages around the living environment, are close and understandable to students, over the past time, schools in the Geopark have organized many useful and meaningful activities. Specifically: organizing knowledge contests, practical lessons associated with local experiential activities; rearranging the school campus and often spend a green library corner in combination with decoration and propaganda about the Geopark. Activities such as painting, acting, poetry writing are also regularly organized, thereby helping the children to love and understand more about Geopark.

Among the forms of propaganda that have been implemented, The year 2022 marked many contests and forums for propaganda about Geoparks that have been actively coordinated by Lang Son Geopark Management Board with the provincial education and training sector by organizing many meaningful propaganda activities for students of schools in the Geopark. Typically, schools organized the Forum “5 things I am doing to protect the Earth”; Contest “I am a tour guide”; the contest “Tourism-education development initiative associated with the 2018 General Education Program based on natural and cultural strengths in districts in the Geopark of Lang Son province”; organized exchanges in English on the occasion of major national and provincial holidays… Notably, at the final round of the contest “Learning about geological heritage, Lang Son Geopark” in 2022, the event attracted 80 students from 19 schools in 5 districts in the Geopark. Students participated in many impressive and attractive competitions such as painting, English presentation, drama, poetry reading, singing, rhyming, costume performance, national heritage, lion cat dance, Then singing… to introduce the heritage value of the Geopark.

Hoang Ha Vi, class 9A1, Bac Son Town Secondary School – a student who gave an impressive presentation on Geopark heritage in English said: Participating in the contest “Learning about geological heritage, Lang Son Geopark”, with my knowledge and understanding, I presented about “educational walking path”, in English. This is a tourism model that connects 5 tourist destinations in the region and Geopark in the district. Thereby, the contest let not only people in the area but also tourists, especially international visitors, know the geopark sites, contributing to promoting and spreading the image of the homeland to a large number of people everywhere.

In addition, some districts in the Geopark have also built nearly 50 effective projects and initiatives to propagate about Lang Son Geopark. For example, Binh Gia district built a model of class on resources, these are special classes held at the ruins of Tham Khuyen cave, Tham Hai; Huu Lung district implemented a talent search contest “I am a tour guide” at primary and secondary schools; Bac Son district built an educational walking path program, which is a model of tourism, geological experience combined with scientific research to outstanding destinations of Bac Son such as Temple of Bac Son martyrs; yin and yang tile village; Bac Son Uprising Museum… The sites selected to be put into operation are highly appreciated heritage sites in the Lang Son Geopark.

It can be seen that, with a variety of effective propaganda methods, over the past time, teachers and students have been communicated and thereby become active propagandists to contribute to the dissemination of Geopark to everyone. At the same time, they continue to uphold the responsibility in joining hands to preserve and protect the cultural and natural heritage of the homeland. Thereby, the teachers and students contributed to the completion of the dossier submitted to UNESCO for recognition of Lang Son’s global Geopark in the near future.