The school bears the mark of writer Marguerite Duras

First Girls' Elementary School

Located on Ho Xuan Huong Street, Sa Dec City, Trung Vuong Primary School exudes an ancient look through the cement lettering "Primary School for Girls", with a row of houses with double roofs and a protruding awning in front. Comparing photos taken between 1920 and 1929, the protruding awning in the past was a Roman-style architectural block, balanced between two pillars and a round arched main door, with the Chinese characters "Nu Hoc Duong" on top.

Mrs. Marie Donnadieu (middle), principal in the early 20th century

PHOTO: SCHOOL DOCUMENTS

We were greeted by two teachers who have taught at the school for 29 years. They were Ms. Lao Thi Tu, who graduated from Can Tho University and started teaching here in 1996, and Ms. Thien Hanh, who joined the school a while before Ms. Tu. They said that the history of the school was thanks to the principal, Pham Thi Det, who painstakingly collected photos and documents. Then, Ms. Thuy Anh, Bich Ha, etc. continued to add more information.

According to handwritten documents in the school's records, from 1887 to 1888, the French colonial government planned to establish a primary school for girls in Sa Dec. At that time, Mr. Nguyen Thanh Ut voluntarily donated a plot of land to establish the school. However, it was not until 1902 that the school was built in French architecture, with a high foundation, solid brick walls, and a tiled roof, named "École De Jeunes Filles". Because the school only accepted female students, a room was arranged to teach home economics.

The first school inspector was also a French female teacher named Espelette. Decades later, the school's principal was also a female teacher, Mrs. Marie Donnadieu, mother of the writer Marguerite Duras, author of the novel The Lover (L'Amant), which won the Goncourt Prize in 1984 and was adapted into a film in 1992.

The school changed its name many times.

During the time when Marie Donnadieu was principal, the school had 5 blocks with 7 classrooms, each with 30-32 students. The 4th block was used to teach home economics and laundry. In 1930, the school changed its name to L'École Primaire de Jeunes Filles de Sadec. In 1932, after Marie Donnadieu returned to Vietnam, a Vietnamese named Tran Van Kiet became principal, and the school was then called "Provincial School for Women". In 1940, due to the increasing number of students, the rooms for home economics and laundry were used as classrooms, but they were still not enough. Therefore, the second and first graders were sent to the Primary School for Boys (now Kim Dong School) to study temporarily.

Trung Vuong Primary School today

In 1945, Mr. Kiet moved to Saigon to work as chief inspector, Mr. Nguyen Van Lanh was the principal. At that time, Nam Primary School was also very crowded, some classes had to move to Duc Quang School to study. Duc Quang School was originally Quang Trieu, the office of the Chinese community in Sa Dec, established in 1890. This facility was later rebuilt and renamed Quang Minh School, then merged with Trung Vuong Primary School in 1999.

In 1957, under Principal Le Thi Nu, the school was named Sa Dec Primary School for Girls and enrolled all-female students with 16 classes. By 1970, the school was renamed Community Primary School for Girls and expanded to 30 classes with more than 1,800 students.

In the 1978-1979 school year, the Girls' Primary School was merged with other schools in the area and took the common name of Vinh Phuoc Secondary and High School with 3 locations and 93 classrooms. In the 1982-1983 school year, it was separated and named Trung Vuong Primary School with 30 classrooms. Currently, Trung Vuong Primary School has 28 classes, from grades 1 to 5, including both campuses, Ms. Thien Hanh said.

Remember the time teaching French

Since the release of the film The Lover, along with the old house of Mr. Huynh Thuy Le, Trung Vuong Primary School has become a destination for foreign tourists, especially from 2002 to 2005, the number of visitors to the school was very large. They came to the school to visit and contemplate more of what was described in the book L'Amant and the film The Lover. Ms. Lao Thi Tu said that in 2006, writer Yann Andréa, the last lover of writer Marguerite Duras, visited the school with the same reason of finding the place where Marie Donnadieu used to live and work and learning about the school where writer Marguerite Duras used to study as a child... Currently, there are fewer visitors than before, but every Wednesday there are still a few groups of foreign visitors stopping by the school on a tour.

Handwriting of Marie Donnadieu, June 1930

PHOTO: SCHOOL DOCUMENTS

In 1994, Trung Vuong Primary School implemented an enhanced French class for primary school students and was the first pilot class in Dong Thap province. Ms. Lao Thi Tu said that with this program, she was invited to France for teaching training. At that time, the whole school had 4 French teachers, and in the 2001-2002 school year, 5 classes with 137 students were developed. However, by 2016, the French classes ended.

According to Ms. Tu, there were many reasons for stopping the program, including the French association not continuing to sponsor books and teaching aids... and then the local government was no longer interested. The French teachers had to re-study the primary education program to switch to teaching Vietnamese, only one teacher switched to teaching English.

Ms. Hanh said that when she was still teaching French, the school had many exchange activities with French schools in the provinces in the region and had a sister school relationship with a primary school in France... Now, French teachers only use their skills to communicate with foreign tourists, people from countries in the Francophone community. (to be continued)

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/ngoi-truong-mang-dau-an-nu-si-marguerite-duras-185250112220054374.htm