Lots of Joy Bilingual Kindergarten in Nanjing, capital of Jiangsu Province

A bilingual? kindergarten in east China's?Nanjing?city has been accused of hiring unqualified foreign teachers who ill-treated children and demanded extra cash from parents.

Children were not allowed to use the toilet, left in soiled clothes and made to eat their supper while standing up as punishment, it is claimed.

A web user with the username "Meititongxunyuan" said that Lots of Joy Bilingual Kindergarten in Nanjing, capital of Jiangsu Province, charged fees of 120,000 yuan (US$18,936) a year to teach children English.

However, its teachers from the Philippines were unqualified, claimed the web user.

They also banned children from using the bathrooms in class and asked for money from parents in holidays, the web user claimed on xici.net.

"My boy wet his pants as he wasn't allowed to use the bathroom," one mother told Yangtze Evening News.

"The cold-blooded teachers ignored this as they didn't want to change his pants," she claimed. "My boy refused to go to the kindergarten after that."

Another mother told the newspaper of punishments allegedly meted out.

"I saw a Filipino teacher punish a girl for not putting chairs in the correct order, she said. "The poor little girl was told to stand in the classroom and eat her supper."

Others complained of communication problems as the Filipinos spoke little Chinese.

"My kid learned nothing, despite the expensive fees," one mother told Yangtze Evening News.

The Nanjing Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs told the newspaper that five of the six foreign teachers employed at the school were from the Philippines.

All had the bachelor's degrees or higher and were said to have teaching experience.

They were granted Foreign Expert Certificates this year, meaning they can be employed in China, an official named Li Xiaochun said.

"The school is responsible for verifying that they are qualified to teach," Li said.

Local education authorities said that they do not manage bilingual kindergartens.

Lots of Joy Bilingual Kindergarten did not respond to the accusations.