A school has vowed to end commercial advertising on certificates of merit given to children after it sparked an online debate about ethics, Chinanews.com reported Wednesday.

Yucheng Experimental Primary School in Shangqiu, Henan province had traded advertising space on children's award certificates in a business deal with local companies.

It was first exposed by an Internet user Zhuangyuange, who published three photos of the certificates of merit online on Jan 15.

One shows the front of the certificate which has a commercial for a foreign language training center at the bottom.

The other two show the back of the certificate which is full of commercials.

The front of the certificate has a commercial for a foreign language training institution on the bottom.

The back of the certificate is full of commercials.

"What are they honoring with commercials on that? Are they fostering children with a business mind?" he wrote.

The principal of the school surnamed Song told local media, "the promoted company provided awards such as school bags, notebooks for our school...we thought it was no big deal and could save expenditure.

"Nowadays it's very common to have commercials on certificates of merits. We are not the only school to do that and it's not started this year," he added. "Since many oppose it online, we will never do that again."

An official of Henan provincial education authority, who asked to remain anonymous, said: "The move is absolutely improper and must be stopped. School is a place for education rather than doing business."