Chinese netizens were outraged after a parent in Zhaoqing City in south China's Guangzhou Province, revealed that her daughter's first grade English text book was full of commercial advertisements.

It is illegal to advertise on school text books that are provided by the government.

Reports on Chinese state media also conformed that English textbooks used by a middle school students in Zhaoqing contained several ads promoting expensive study aids, stationary products etc.

A three-page leaflet promoting various English study guides, dictionaries and even an electronic pen was included in all the textbooks given to students to primary school students from grade one to grade three. In addition to this, the last six pages of the 144-page text books were turned into an advertising supplement peddling other products from the book's publisher.

A teacher at the Zhaoqing middle school explained that individual schools did not have the right to prescribe any textbooks for their students as the local education department made all the decisions on this regard.

A spokesperson for Beijing Ren Ai Educational Research Center, the publisher of these controversial textbooks, said that the advertisements were a form of after-sales service. The spokesperson stressed that all the contents recommended in the "advertising supplement" were education related.

However, many renowned educationalists openly criticized the errant move by the textbooks' publisher.

Xiang Xianming, the Chairman of the Academic Committee of Renmin Univerisity said that advertisements on textbooks given to very young children could mislead them or serve as a coercive marketing ploy, where the parents are pushed to buy the extra audio materials or guidebooks to accompany the textbooks.

Wu Yinghai, a well-known teacher in Jiangsu Province, called for the relevant officers-in-charge to be punished.

Regulations on illegal ads in textbooks

In 2011, China's Education Ministry issued a set of guidelines for the publishers of compulsory educational textbooks. These guidelines stipulate that school textbooks cannot contain any form of advertising.

In 2013, the Education Department of Hubei province purchased more than 3.2 million pirated copies of Chinese dictionaries for the students. These dictionaries contained 20 times more errors than original copies. The relevant officers were reprimanded later.

In September this year, many pirated copies of textbooks were given primary and junior middle school students in Harbin, the capital of northeast China's Heilongjiang Province. Lots of errors were found in these pirated copies, which were sold at a higher price than the original copies.

Earlier this month, a citizen in Changzhou city, east China's jiangsu Province, found that a book titled 'the second grade Mei Yangyang', which was read by her daughter after school every day contained obscene content. However, this book is in the recommended list released by the education authority in jiangsu Province.