The French wanted to destroy local cultures, religions and traditions as they believed they were outdated and prevented modern development. They wanted to educate the ‘native’ to civilise them. They adopted the idea of a ‘civilising mission’.Like the British in India, the French also wanted to bring modern civilisation to the Vietnamese. This they also did because they required educated local labour force. But they feared that education might create 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 when Vietnamese would be educated. So they opposed policies that would give the Vietnamese full access to French education. Therefore, France took several measures in the field of education. (i) The French systematically dismantled the traditional educational system and established French schools for the Vietnamese. This required the change of language. At last it was decided to teach Vietnamese in lower classes and French in the higher classes. By doing so they wanted to introduce the culture and civilisation of France to the Vietnamese. They thought that the educated people in Vietnam would respect French sentiments and ideals and would accept the superiority of French culture and would work for the French. (ii) It was announced that those who would learn French and accept French culture would be rewarded with French citizenship. But only few elite Vietnamese could enroll in the schools, and only a few could pass the school-leaving examination because French people deliberately failed the students, mainly in the final year, so as to stop them from getting better-paid jobs. As many as two-thirds of the students failed and in 1925, out of 17 million population less than 400 passed the examination. (iii) School textbooks glorified the French and justified colonial rule and represented the Vietnamese as primitive and backward, capable of manual labour only. School children were taught that only French rule could ensure peace in Vietnam. Many Vietnamese teachers and students opposed it. They did not blindly follow the curriculum and the teachers started modifying the text and criticising what was stated about Vietnamese. A major protest exploded in 1926 in the Saigon Native Girls School, when a Vietnamese girl sitting in one of the front seats was asked to vacate the seat for a local French student and when she refused, she was expelled from the school. To this, the students protested and then they too were expelled. Thus open protests started. To control the situation the students were taken back. By the 1920s, students started forming various political parties, like the Party of Young Annan, and published several nationalist journals such as the Annanese Student. Thus, schools became an important place for political and cultural battles