[2] 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 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.

During the Trần Trọng Kim cabinet of the Empire of Vietnam it was renamed the Ministry of Education and Fine Arts (Vietnamese: Bộ Giáo dục và Mỹ thuật; Hán-Nôm: 部教育𡝕美術)[c] and was headed by minister Hoàng Xuân Hãn.

On 28 August 1945 the Democratic Republic of Vietnam would set up its own Ministry of National Education taking over the functions in Vietnamese society of the old imperial institution.

[11][12] The Confucian education system is mainly based on the Four Books and Five Classics, which leads to people only studying literature and scriptures to become a mandarin rather than any practical courses related to administration.

[15][14] If the native population advanced to a certain level of civilisation they would be able to reach the French republican values of Liberté, égalité, fraternité (liberty, equality, and fraternity).

[13] By 1905 the Annamese and Tonkinese education systems were still heavily focused on Confucianism, but had already added a number of subjects like French, Chữ quốc ngữ, and mathematics.

[13] The Quốc Học was established for the children of mandarins and the imperial family, in if students would study French, vernacular Vietnamese, and Classical Chinese simultaneously for 6 years.

[13] On 16 May 1906 the Governor-General of French Indochina Jean Baptiste Paul Beau issued a decree establishing the "Council for the Improvement of Indigenous Education in Annam" (French: Conseil de Perfectionnement de l’Enseignement indigène en Annam; Vietnamese: Hội đồng Hoàn thiện giáo dục Bản xứ Trung Kỳ; Hán-Nôm: 會同完善教育本處中圻).

[8] On the 9th day of the 9th month of the 1st year of the reign of the Duy Tân Emperor the Học Bộ was established by imperial decree (諭, Dụ) to take over the functions relating to education from the Ministry of Rites.

[8] Since the Thành Thái period, new innovative ways of learning have been imported from abroad and a large number of new schools were established in the territory of the Nguyễn dynasty.

[10] In terms of organisational structure, the Học Bộ, like other ministries, was headed by a Thượng thư and below him a Tham Tri (or Thị lang / 侍郎, Vice Minister).

[8] While the Học Bộ was nominally a part of the Nguyễn dynasty's administrative apparatus, actual control was in the hands of the French Council for the Improvement of Indigenous Education in Annam, which dictated its policies.

[9] All work done by the ministry was according to the plans and the command of the French Director of Education of Annam (監督學政中圻, Giám đốc Học chính Trung Kỳ).

(Original Vietnamese) "Một bên thì không ngừng quay về với quá khứ, âm thầm chống đối những cải cách có nguồn gốc phương Tây; một bên dựa trên quá khứ nhưng lại hướng về và chuẩn bị cho những đổi thay cuả đất nước."

Thân Trọng Huề wanted to reform the education system to teach scientific learning in primary, secondary, and tertiary schools so "the light of civilisation will penetrate the villages" and hoped that the entire population would become literate.

[13] Thân Trọng Huề had first worked for 15 years in the French protectorate of Tonkin before joining the Southern Court in Huế where he hoped to promote reformers in the executive branch of the government and to "rectify the bureaucracy" (Chấn chỉnh quan trường).

[21] Among these reforms was an imperial edict signed on 8 April 1933 that reshuffled the cabinet, as the Bảo Đại Emperor decided to govern himself and ordained five new well-known ministers from the academic and administrative circles.

[24][21] When the Học Bộ became the Ministry of National Education the former Governor-General of French Indochina Jean-François dit Eugène Charles was presided over the founding ceremony on 7 August 1933 in Huế.

[16] In his memoirs Le Dragon d’Annam Bảo Đại wrote: “In order to rejuvenate the mandarin apparatus and promote new people, it was Charles who suggested that I replace Mr. [Nguyễn Hữu] Bài with Phạm Quỳnh.

"[16] Phạm Quỳnh was installed by Dụ số 29 and despite what the Bảo Đại Emperor wrote in his memoirs he was actually 39 years old at the time of his appointment as the Minister of National Education.

[17] After completing 4 years of study students received a Diplôme d’Étude Primaire Supérieurs Franco-Indigène (Bằng Cao Đẳng Tiểu Học) which were required to go into secondary education.

[16] In 1942 the Bảo Đại Emperor signed the 147th edict on 28 December 1942 (Dụ số 147 ngày 28/12/1942) establishing the Department of Youth and Sports (Nha Thanh niên và Thể thao) of the government of the Southern dynasty.

[21] Trần Trọng Kim's government strongly emphasised educational reform, focusing on the development of technical training, particularly the use of romanised script (Chữ quốc ngữ) as the primary language of instruction.

[26] His reforms took more than four months to achieve their results, and have been regarded as a stepping stone for the successor Việt Minh government's launch of compulsory mass education.

[25] In July 1945, when the Japanese decided to grant Vietnam full independence and territorial unification, Kim's government was about to begin a new round of reform, by naming a committee to create a new national education system.

[10] In the South Vietnamese book Hoàng Việt Giáp Tý niên biểu written by Nguyễn Bá Trác and published by the South Vietnamese Ministry of National Education in Saigon in 1963 it explains on its page 358: "In early 1907, the Huế court sent two great ministers Cao Xuân Dục and Huỳnh Côn to lead the delegation to French Cochinchina to "discuss the subject of education" with the French.

(Đầu năm 1907, triều đình Huế cử hai đại thần Cao Xuân Dục và Huỳnh Côn cầm đầu phái đoàn vào Nam kỳ để “bàn nghị học chính” với Pháp, cuối năm về Huế, ngay sau đó “thiết lập Bộ Học”).

[8] Part 1 of the Encyclopedic Dictionary of Vietnam writes that "The state agency of the Nguyễn court during the French colonial period, specialising in studying and taking exams, was separated from the Ministry of Rites in 1907, during the reign of sovereign Duy Tân."

[8] However, the 2001 book Địa danh thành phố Huế published by the Nxb Văn hoá dân tộc in Hanoi explains on its page 339: "The Ministry of Education was established during the Bảo Đại period after abolishing the Ministry of War in 1932" (Bộ Học thành lập thời Bảo Đại sau khi bỏ Bộ Binh vào năm 1932).