Question

9. What was the dilemma that the French faced in the area of imparting education to the Vietnamese?

Answer 1

French colonisation adopted the idea of a ‘civilising mission’. They wanted to educate the ‘native’ to civilise them. They were also doing so because they required educated local labour force. But they feared that education might create the following problems

(i) Educated Vietnamese may question colonial domination.

(ii) French citizens living in Vietnam (called colons) also developed fear of losing their jobs as teachers, shopkeepers, policemen to the educated Vietnamese.So they opposed policies that would give the Vietnamese full access to French education.