A dance school that arranged for its teenage students to work as bar girls in nightclubs is being investigated by Chinese education authorities.

 

"We've ordered the local education department to report on the situation and we'll deal with it," said Wang Xuming, a spokesman of the Ministry of Education on Tuesday.

 

In September the Guilin Intermediate Vocational Dance School in the southeastern Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region sent 22 students to work in bars and nightclubs on 'internships' in Hangzhou, capital of Zhejiang Province in east China.

 

The school told the students' parents the performances would be at decent venues and they'd be paid 750 yuan (US$93) a month rising to 1,200 yuan (US$150) after two months.

 

Xiao Yan, a 15-year-old student, aid the girls were told to dress "in a mature way" and tell people they were 18. Xiao Yu, 16, said she and other girls had to drink with the customers or have a 50-yuan (US$6) deduction from their salary for each refusal.

 

Each student earned 100 yuan per night with half going to an agent, 25 yuan going to the school and the girls keeping the rest. "During those days my classmates often returned to the dormitory inebriated and cried to go back home all night long," said one student.

 

"My daughter called five days after she arrived in Hangzhou and told me they were not performing most of the time but working as bar girls," said parent Zhou Liu'er. His daughter fled home on October 24.

 

The school was set up in 1997 and takes students mainly from neighboring poor villages of Guilin.

 

Zhou Zhen, the principal assistant, said the school was doing the students a favor, as most were from poor families that couldn't afford their tuition.

 

"The school seriously violated regulations by making a profit from their internships," said Ning Xiaobao, deputy director of the Guilin Municipal Education Department.

 

All of the students had stopped working at the bars and returned to the school, state media have reported.

 

(Xinhua News Agency November 29, 2006)