After one hundred years- form a source of light of Đông Kinh Private School of Righteousness

Abstract

The year 2007 marks even one hundred years of inauguration and closing of the Hanoi Free School, the first private-run school, or speaking more precisely a movement, which sought to bring in a revolutionary change in terms of ways and means of operation in the history of education in Vietnam. Adapted from Khanh Ung Free School model in Japan, the Hanoi Free School intended to replace Confucianism with the ideology of Western democracy and civilization with a view to refreshing the traditional thinking of the whole nation, enhancing technology and renewing the country. Started with the address of No. 4 in Hang Dao street, Hanoi where located the private house of the Dean of the School, Luong Van Can, the Hanoi Free School movement quickly expanded its activism to many provinces in the Northern and Central parts of the country, making it become an influential quake in the spiritual life of the nation in the first decade of the twentieth century. The movement was subjected to the draconian suppression of French colonialists after seven months in action. However, the spirit of renewing the country and a core ideology upheld by the Hanoi Free School movement that only by renewing the country, can the country be reclaimed and protected remains valid for one century and is maintained by the renewal cause led by the Communist Party of Vietnam from the last two decades of the 20th century.