Ministry of Education (Nguyễn dynasty)

During the Nguyễn dynasty period (1802–1945) of Vietnamese history its Ministry of Education was reformed a number of times, in its first iteration it was called the Học Bộ (Hán tự: 學部), which was established during the reign of the Duy Tân Emperor (1907–1916) and took over a number of functions of the Lễ Bộ, one of the Lục Bộ. The Governor-General of French Indochina wished to introduce more education reforms, the Nguyễn court in Huế sent Cao Xuân Dục and Huỳnh Côn, the Thượng thư of the Hộ Bộ, to French Cochinchina to discuss these reforms with the French authorities. After their return the Học Bộ was established in the year Duy Tân 1 (1907) with Cao Xuân Dục being appointed to be its first Thượng thư (minister). Despite nominally being a Nguyễn dynasty institution, actual control over the ministry fell in the hands of the French Council for the Improvement of Indigenous Education in Annam. The Học Bộ also included a number of agencies like the Quốc sử quán (國史館), the official state history office. And the Quốc tử giám (國子監), the national academy. During this period the country saw a transition of the traditional Confucian-based system of imperial examinations to the multi-field and specialised educational system that was being used in the West. Educational reformers who were educated in France rose to prominent positions and reformed the Nguyễn dynasty's education system from within. In the year Bảo Đại 8 (1933) the Học Bộ was reformed into the more French-style Ministry of National Education (Vietnamese: Bộ Quốc gia Giáo dục; Hán-Nôm: 部國家教育; French: Ministère de l'Éducation nationale). The Bảo Đại Emperor wanted to remove the old ministers who were solely educated in Confucianism and replace them with well-known academics and officials calling for Westernising reforms. The first Thượng thư of the Ministry of National Education was Phạm Quỳnh, the editor-in-chief of the Nam Phong magazine. In the year Bảo Đại 17 (1942) the Ministry of National Education would also become responsible for the organising youth activities and sports events with the creation of the Department of Youth and Sports.