During the Nguyễn dynasty period (1802–1945) of Vietnamese history its Ministry of Education was reformed a number of times, in its first iteration it was called the Học Bộ (chữ Hán: 學部; French: Ministère de l'Instruction publique)Title: Lectures sur l'histoire moderne et contemporaine du pays d'Annam de 1428 à 1926 (Éd. nouv. rev. et corr.) / Charles B. Maybon,... Author: Maybon, Charles B. (1872-1926). Auteur du texte Publisher: Impr. d'Extrême-Orient (Hanoi) Publication date: 1930 Page: 235. (in French). which was established during the reign of the Duy Tân Emperor (1907–1916) and took over a number of functions of the Lễ Bộ, one of the Lục Bộ. The Governor-General of French Indochina wished to introduce more education reforms, the Nguyễn court in Huế sent Cao Xuân Dục and Huỳnh Côn, the Thượng thư of the Hộ Bộ, to French Cochinchina to discuss these reforms with the French authorities. After their return the Học Bộ was established in the year Duy Tân 1 (1907) with Cao Xuân Dục being appointed to be its first Thượng thư (minister).Nguyễn Đắc Xuân - Tập 4 bộ sách Hỏi đáp về triều Nguyễn và Huế (NXB Trẻ, TP. HCM, 2002.) Pages: 47 – 48. (in Vietnamese). Despite nominally being a Nguyễn dynasty institution, actual control over the ministry fell in the hands of the French Council for the Improvement of Indigenous Education in Annam.Dương Kinh Quốc - Việt Nam những sự kiện lịch sử 1858 – 1918 (NXB Giáo Dục, Hà Nội, 1999.) Pages: 303 – 304. (in Vietnamese).
The Học Bộ also included a number of agencies like the Quốc sử quán (國史館), the official state history office.Quốc sử quán triều Nguyễn: 125 năm xây dựng và phát triển hoạt động , NetCoDo của Việt Nam Net, dẫn lại của báo Thế giới Mới, truy cập 20 tháng 9 năm 2008. And the Quốc tử giám (國子監), the national academy.
During this period the country saw a transition of the traditional Confucian-based system of imperial examinations to the multi-field and specialised educational system that was being used in the West. Educational reformers who were educated in France rose to prominent positions and reformed the Nguyễn dynasty's education system from within.
In the year Bảo Đại 8 (1933) the Học Bộ was reformed into the more French-style Ministry of National Education (Vietnamese: Bộ Quốc dân Giáo dục; Hán-Nôm: 部國民教育; French: Ministère de l'Éducation nationale). The Bảo Đại Emperor wanted to remove the old ministers who were solely educated in Confucianism and replace them with well-known academics and officials calling for Westernising reforms. The first Thượng thư of the Ministry of National Education was Phạm Quỳnh, the editor-in-chief of the Nam Phong magazine.Nguyễn Phúc Vĩnh Thụy - Translated from Le dragon d'Annam, Bao Dai, Plon, 1980. (in French). bản dịch sang Việt ngữ mang nhan đề Con rồng An Nam (Nguyễn Phước tộc xuất bản, California 1990, tr. 90).
In the year Bảo Đại 17 (1942) the Ministry of National Education would also become responsible for the organising youth activities and sports events with the creation of the Department of Youth and Sports. Expanding the scope of the Ministry and its duties.
During the Trần Trọng Kim cabinet of the Empire of Vietnam it was renamed the Ministry of Education and Fine Arts (Vietnamese: Bộ Giáo dục và Mỹ thuật; Hán-Nôm: 部教育𡝕美術) and was headed by minister Hoàng Xuân Hãn. The Empire of Vietnam's Ministry of Education and Fine Arts would launch a national Vietnamese-language curriculum and try to Vietnamise the country's education system at every level to reduce the influence of the French language on Vietnam's education system. It was abolished during the August Revolution when the Indochinese Communist Party staged a nationwide revolution that ended the 143-year reign of the Nguyễn dynasty over Vietnam. On 28 August 1945 the Democratic Republic of Vietnam would set up its own Ministry of National Education taking over the functions in Vietnamese society of the old imperial institution.GS. Vũ Đình Hòe – Từ sinh viên đại học Đông Dương đến Bộ trưởng của nước Việt Nam độc lập. - Vietnam National University, Hanoi (in Vietnamese). The reforms introduced in 1945 proved successful and would influence the education systems of Vietnam long after the fall of the Nguyễn dynasty.
History
Background
After ascending to the throne the Gia Long Emperor adopted the organisational structure of the Revival Lê dynasty's government. From 1802 until 1906 the ministries of the government of the Nguyễn dynasty consisted of the Ministry of Personnel (吏部, Lại Bộ), Ministry of Revenue (戶部, Hộ Bộ), Ministry of Rites (禮部, Lễ Bộ), Ministry of War (兵部, Binh Bộ), Ministry of Justice (刑部, Hình Bộ), and the Ministry of Public Works (工部, Công Bộ), these were known together as the Lục Bộ (六部). During the reign of the Duy Tân Emperor, the operation of the Lục Bộ was gradually changed; the number of ministries and names of some of them changed. Furthermore, the mode of operation of the ministries would also change.
The Ministry of Rites was responsible for the rituals, culture, and education of the court. It was the Ministry of Rites that organised the Confucian Hương exams and the Hội exams, and to organise the ceremony to announce the names of those who passed the examination and would become tiến sĩ (進士). The head of the education related tasks of the Ministry of Rites was the Ty Tân hưng.
Following the French conquest of Vietnam and the establishment of French Indochina the French would introduce a lot of reforms to the Vietnamese education system. During the French period the Confucian-oriented education system was slowly being replaced with a localised version of the French education system.World Bank (World Bank Group) – “Education in Vietnam”. Published: 2010. Prior to French domination teachers were held in high regard in the Confucian system and as such one of the traditional values of the Vietnamese people is the promotion of learning and to have high respect for educators. In this old system teachers were deemed to be "Only lower than the King" (Emperor) according to a 2010 report by the World Bank. The Confucian education system is mainly based on the Four Books and Five Classics, which leads to people only studying literature and scriptures to become a mandarin rather than any practical courses related to administration.
The goals of the French "mission civilisatrice" (civilising mission) were to share the ideals of an egalitarian society and educate the indigenous populations of the French colonies through progress provided to them by education, culture, and science. - Thi Liên Trân, Claire: Indochina, in: 1914-1918-online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War, ed. by Ute Daniel, Peter Gatrell, Oliver Janz, Heather Jones, Jennifer Keene, Alan Kramer, and Bill Nasson, issued by Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin 2022-01-11. DOI: 10.15463/ie1418.11594. This model saw the culture produced by French civilisation as "unique, universal, and superior".Peycam, Philippe M. F: The birth of Vietnamese political journalism. Saigon, 1916-1930, New York City (2015): Columbia University Press. Page: 36. If the native population advanced to a certain level of civilisation they would be able to reach the French republican values of Liberté, égalité, fraternité (liberty, equality, and fraternity). However, in practice the French colonial educational and medical systems were primarily intended for the French colonists and a handful of indigenous elites residing in the main cities. In reality the vast majority of the indigenous populations of the Nguyễn dynasty would continue to be educated in Confucian village schools and a small number of some Catholic parish schools and seminaries.
In 1898 Governor-General of French Indochina Paul Doumer decreed that the Thi Hương (試鄉) examination department of the Nam Định province should open an additional French exam. By 1905 the Annamese and Tonkinese education systems were still heavily focused on Confucianism, but had already added a number of subjects like French, Chữ quốc ngữ, and mathematics. By this time two French-Annamese schools (Trường Pháp Việt) existed in Huế, namely the Trường tiểu học Pháp-Việt Đông Ba and the Quốc Học. The Quốc Học was established for the children of mandarins and the imperial family, in if students would study French, vernacular Vietnamese, and Classical Chinese simultaneously for 6 years.
On 16 May 1906 the Governor-General of French Indochina Jean Baptiste Paul Beau issued a decree establishing the "Council for the Improvement of Indigenous Education in Annam" (French: Conseil de Perfectionnement de l’Enseignement indigène en Annam; Vietnamese: Hội đồng Hoàn thiện giáo dục Bản xứ Trung Kỳ; Hán-Nôm: 會同完善教育本處中圻). This organisation would oversee the French policies surrounding the education of the indigenous population of the French protectorate of Annam. It was established alongside similar French Indochinese councils for indigenous educations for Cambodia, Cochinchina, Tonkin, and Laos to "study educational issues related to each place separately."; On 30 October 1906, France issued a decree on "establishing a French-Vietnamese educational programme in Annam". These organisations would all fall under the federal Direction de l’Instruction Publique de l’Indochine (Nha Học Chính Đông Pháp).
According to researcher Nguyễn Đắc Xuân, in 1907, the imperial court of the Nguyễn dynasty sent Cao Xuân Dục and Huỳnh Côn, the Thượng thư of the Hộ Bộ, to French Cochinchina to "hold a conference on education" (bàn nghị học chính) with the French authorities on the future of the Annamese education system. This meeting was also recorded in the work Hoàng Việt Giáp Tý niên biểu written by Nguyễn Bá Trác. The creation of a ministry of education was orchestrated by the French to reform the Nguyễn dynasty's educational system to match French ambitions in the region more.
On the 9th day of the 9th month of the 1st year of the reign of the Duy Tân Emperor the Học Bộ was established by imperial decree (諭, Dụ) to take over the functions relating to education from the Ministry of Rites.
Học Bộ
The Encyclopedic Dictionary of Vietnam explains that the ministry the Nguyễn court established the Học Bộ by splitting off all education related tasks from the Ministry of Rites. The organisation of both examinations in the capital and the provinces was to be provided by the Học Bộ. The Quốc sử quán (國史館) and the Quốc tử giám (國子監) agencies of the Ministry of Rites were also transferred to the Học Bộ.
Since the Thành Thái period, new innovative ways of learning have been imported from abroad and a large number of new schools were established in the territory of the Nguyễn dynasty. When the Ministry of Education was established, all the examinations, schools, student selection processes, and educational institutions of the Southern dynasty changed. While in the past only Confucianism was seen as vital for the learning process, and to study one had to know Confucian script (𡨸儒, Chữ Nho), study ancient texts, ancient poems, learn about ancient regimes, expressions, and read ancient books, during the Thành Thái period a large number of newer ways of learning entered the country. By the time that the Học Bộ was created these newer ways of learning had to be integrated into the institution education system of the country. As explained by the Resident-Superior of Annam Ernest Fernand Lévecque "Its creation is to better suit the times as more opportunities to study" opened up in the South to which this new ministry was best suited to help this transition.
The headquarters of the Học Bộ were located in the old headquarters of the old the trường Tôn Học.