Question

Describe the Resistance to the French colonial education in schools in Vietnam.

Answer 1

• Like the British in India, the French claimed that they were bringing modern civilisation to the Vietnamese. Education was seen as one way to civilize the ‘native’.
  
• School textbooks glorified the French and justified colonial rule. The Vietnamese were represented as primitive and backward, capable of manual labour but not of intellectual reflection; they could work in the fields but not rule themselves; they were ‘skilled copyists’ but not creative.
• Teachers and students did not blindly follow the curriculum. Sometimes there was open opposition, at other times there was silent resistance. As the numbers of Vietnamese teachers increased in the lower classes, it became difficult to control what was actually taught.
  
• While teaching, Vietnamese teachers quietly modified the text and criticised what was stated. They were inspired by patriotic feelings and the conviction that it was the duty of the educated to fight for the benefit of society. This brought them into conflict with the French as well as the traditional elite since both saw their positions threatened.
• By the 1920s, students were forming various political parties, such as the Party of Young Annan, and publishing nationalist journals such as theAnnanese Student. Schools thus became an important place for political and cultural battles.