A Message to the Scholarship Recipients

In 1892, Nguyen Lo Trach, a famous intellectual, said “A country is considered to be strong or weak not by its size, but its people’s knowledge and education”. This statement emphasizes the importance of an education system that is based on good morality, benevolence and righteousness, with democratic and human rights.

In the 20th century, while Vietnam struggled under slavery and the influence of Confucianism, two scholars emerged in 1904 who led the education reform which outlined the future of Vietnam. They were Phan Chu Trinh, who organized the “Modernization Movement”; and Phan Boi Chau, who led the “Learning from the East Movement”. The movements had two principles.

The first principle is “Expand People’s Knowledge” - Both scholars discovered that expanding people’s knowledge should be the foundation for the Vietnamese people to focus, explore, and cultivate regardless of their social classes. Another great leader, the former president Nelson Mandela, also realized the same degree of importance in education, once stated “Education is the strongest weapon that people could use to change the world”.

100 years later, this movement continues to affect Vietnam in all areas, from economic, social, political, historical to culture and education. It is affirmative to say that almost every Vietnamese all over the world, including those who are present here today, have benefited from the two movements mentioned above, especially in culture and education. Without these movements, the Vietnamese students may still be educated in Chinese or ancient Vietnamese (which is even more complicated than Chinese); women would not have a chance to go to school. In other words, all Valedictorians, Salutatorians, who present today are the brilliant offsprings from the “Expanding People Knowledge” movement a century ago.