Answer:
In 1907, the Tonkin Free School' was started in Vietnam by the French to modernise the Vietnamese. Besides teaching foreign languages, western ideas, and western styles like short hair cuts for the Vietnamese this meant a major break with their own identity. There was silent resistance against this by students and teachers.
In 1926, a major protest erupted in "Saigon Native School' when a Vietnamese student sitting in one of the front seats was asked to go to the back of the class. When the movement went out of hand the principal reluctantly agreed to take back the students who were expelled earlier but warned the students against breaking rules.
Students fought against colonial government's efforts to prevent the Vietnamese from qualifying for white collar jobs. They were inspired by the patriotic feelings and by the conviction that it was the duty of the educated to fight for the benefit of the society. By 1920 students were forming various political parties like Party of the Young Annan who published journals to instil patriotism.
Schools thus became an important place for political and cultural battles. The French sought to strengthen their rule in Vietnam through control of education. They tried to change' the values, norms and perceptions of the people, to make them believe in the superiority of French civilisation and inferiority of the Vietnamese.
Vietnamese intellectuals on the other hand feared that Vietnam was losing not just control over territory but its very identity, its culture and customs were being devalued and the people were developing a master-slave mentality. Thus the battle against French colonial education became a part of larger battle against colonialism and for independence.
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