Question

Why was the Tonkin Free School started in Vietnam? Explain one reason.

Answer 1

Hint: The French represented the Vietnamese as primitive and backward. The Vietnamese were regarded as barbarians and unhygienic. The western education system could only bring prosperity in the country, the French stated.

Complete answer: In 1858, the French troops came to Vietnam and around the mid-1880s they controlled a major part of the northern region, also then they started capturing different parts of the country.
The French glorified their rule and represented the Vietnamese as primitive and backward, they also asserted that Vietnamese are only capable of manual labour. The French claimed that they only can bring modern civilization to Vietnam, the same was claimed by the British in India.
In 1907, the Tonkin Free School was started, the main reason to start school was to provide a western-style education. According to the French, the Vietnamese would become civilized only by adopting the western education system.
Science, hygiene, and French were taught to the students. The approach of the school came to be called 'modern' as the subjects and pattern of teaching were different from the older system.
The Tonkin Free School also asked the Vietnamese to adopt the western style of having short hair which also faced backlash as Vietnamese traditionally kept long hair.
By the end of the 1$9^{th}$ century and early 2$0^{th}$, to acquire modern education, they were moving out of the country and Japan provided a perfect environment. This movement came to be known as The Go East Movement.

Note: The Vietnamese students were told that peace could only be ensured in Vietnam only with the French rule. The Vietnamese culture was denounced in the school textbooks.