Marie Curie High School (French: Lycée Marie Curie, Vietnamese: Trường Trung học Phổ thông Marie Curie) is a public high school in District 3, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Established in 1918 and named after the Nobel prize-winning scientist Marie Curie by the French colonial government, it remains the sole high school in Saigon that still bears its original name.
Founded in 1918 as an all-girls school, it began accepting boys in 1970. In 1997, it was turned into a semi-public high school. In the recent past, it was one of the largest high schools in Vietnam, with around 5000 students in regular attendance. In 2007, it became a public high school.
History
The entranceDesign of Marie Curie high schoolF building block, the newest block of the school.
As soon as the French occupied Cochinchina (Cochinchine), they started constructing schools to teach French and Annamese. Lycée Marie Curie School was established between 1858 and 1862 (the year France gained protection of Cochinchina under the Treaty of Nham Tuat).
The school, named after scientist Marie Curie since 1918, is an all-girls school. After the Japanese entered Indochina in 1941, the school was requisitioned as a hospital, so all activities were moved to a kindergarten on Pham Ngoc Thach Street. A year later, the school was returned to its original location under the new name of Calmette Middle School. After the French returned to occupy Saigon on September 23, 1945, the school was renamed Lucien Mossard High School. In early 1948, it was renamed as Marie Curie High School (or Lycée Marie Curie). During the Republic of Vietnam era, the school was a private high school for girls. In 1970, the school started accepting male students.[1][2]
