The Binh Duong Club for Environment (C4E), a group of university students, is determined to spread the word to secondary-school students about the need for environmental protection and sustainability.

Nguyen Vinh Huy, head of the club, said the club hads been able to change attitudes and raise awareness about green issues by holding classes at schools in southern Binh Duong province.

The feedback from the students has been positive, with most of the students now aware that human activities cause pollution and that everyone must act properly to protect the environment.

As a result of the classes, the students regularly carry out energy-saving and non-polluting activities, such as reminding their classmates to switch off lights and fans, closing water taps after use, and riding bicycles or buses to school instead of being transported by their parents' motorbikes or cars.

Throwing away waste properly into rubbish bins and planting more trees around houses and schools are two other activities that they have been doing on a regular basis.

Students also said they want adults to develop a system to properly sort waste in Thu Dau Mot town, the main centre of Binh Duong province.

The C4E group conducted the classes on the weekend as an extra-curricular activity at 10 secondary schools in Thu Dau Mot Town.

They were held in agreement with the local Department of Education and Training and supported by the province's Union of Science and Technology Associations.

Conducted in September and October with 823 secondary-school students, the classes included speeches, games and painting activities on environment-related topics.

"The classes were good. The students liked the speeches and got involved in the games," said Tran Quoc Duong of the Union of Science and Technology Associations.

Duong said that C4E will teach classes at other schools in the province next year, thanks to the success of the C4E classes.

As a result of their success, the C4E will continue to receive financial support for their activities from the union and local education department.

C4E consists of 11 members who are students at Binh Duong University, Thu Dau Mot University, HCM City University of Natural Sciences, and others.

C4E is currently setting up follow-up classes, and students from the schools have registered in 49 groups to take part in activities.

The club's plans include mobile video shows to educate adults about protecting the environment around their homes./.