Chu Văn An High School (Hanoi)

1908–1945

On 12 December 1908, the Governor-General of Indochina Antony Wladislas Klobukowski made a decision to create Collège du Protectorat (College of the Protectorate, similar to the secondary school) based on the merger of the Thông ngôn Bờ sông school, the Jules Ferry Nam Dinh secondary school and the pedagogy class (Cours normal) on Pottier street. In 1931, the school was upgraded to a lycée (similar to the high school) - Lycée du Protectorat(The school of Protectorate). However, because the school was built on the land of Thuy Khuê village (in the Hậu Lê era, it was the place where the palace Thụy Chương was built at the Kẻ Bưởi area, beside the West Lake (Hanoi) so the residents here called it the Bưởi school. Bưởi school was the name which students who opposed to the France used when mentioned to the school in order not to call the official name which was named by the French.

By 1943, because of the break out of the World War II, the school had to move to the Phúc Nhạc monastery in Ninh Bình and the others moved to Thanh Hóa, in 1945 they backed to Hà Nội. However, the number of students still increased from 1937 (190 students) to 1944 (424 students). After Japan overthrow France, on 12 June 1945, the northern king's special envoy Phan Kế Toại decided to change the name to Chu Van An high school - named after the famous teacher in the history of Viet Nam Chu Văn An and appointed professor Nguyễn Gia Tường to the principal position, that was the first Vietnamese principal of the Bưởi - Chu Văn An high school. The name of the school has been used from that until now, despite of evacuating for sometimes in the Indochina War I.

After the Đông Kinh Nghĩa Thục school was forced to close in 1907, the French extended the Chu Van An school in order to train the Vietnamese high - graded officer for the ruling system, but in northern province at that time there was only one school that was the Bưởi school was lycée for Vietnamese students because lycée Albert Sarraut was for French students, and they chose just a few Vietnamese students (that was the main opponent of the Bưởi school in studying achievement and sport), and a long time after that they added another schools in Hải Phòng, Nam Định,... so this was the beginning of the Vietnamese young intelligentsias, they chose 120 students of all Northern province for a year (and the proportion of students in northern province was lowest of the country, just 1 student/10000 people) had a chance to learn in Bưởi school at that time was a big pride, students of the school worked in economy, cultural branch, almost all of the representatives were excellent. Not only Vietnamese students, Bưởi school was also the place where students of Laos and Cambodia went to learn such as Souphanouvong and Kaysone Phomvihane. The tuition fee at that time was about 4 Indochina Dong for one month, so getting scholarships were very important.