The story begins in 1871, when the French colonial administration created the École normale indigène. Three years later, a decree of 14 November 1874 turned that school into the Collège indigène de Saïgon on the very site where the modern high school stands today.

In 1877 the college was renamed after François, Marquis de Chasseloup‑Laubat, a French general and engineer. The name stuck for half a century, and in 1927 the institution was officially upgraded to a full secondary school called Lycée Chasseloup‑Laubat.

Student activism marked the school’s history. On 4 April 1926, the day of patriot Phan Châu Trinh’s funeral, pupils wrote “ABLF — À Bas Les Français” on the blackboards and joined a nationwide school boycott, turning the campus into a hotbed of anti‑colonial protest.

The Lycée produced a remarkable roster of alumni: French novelist Marguerite Duras, Cambodian King Norodom Sihanouk, Vietnamese revolutionary Trần Văn Giàu, and South Vietnam’s last president Dương Văn Minh, among others.

After the French left, the school’s name changed to Lycée Jean‑Jacques Rousseau in 1958. Seven years later, in 1967, the South Vietnamese Education Ministry renamed it the Lê Quý Đôn Education Center, honoring the 18th‑century scholar. Since 1975 it has operated as Lê Quý Đôn High School.

These successive name changes reflect the broader shift from a colonial education system designed to serve French interests to a national institution shaping Vietnam’s own future. The building’s architecture and its famous former pupils together offer a vivid snapshot of the country’s complex journey from colonisation to independence.