Education authorities in Fuyang, Anhui province, said seven students photographed kneeling under a banner welcoming inspectors did so voluntarily to ask teachers' forgiveness after they bullied a younger student, The Beijing News reported on Dec 24.

In the picture, which created much controversy online, several teachers are standing before the kneeling students. The banner above them welcomes the officials who arrived to inspect the school.

Many netizens speculated that the students were being punished because school officials wanted to impress their superiors. But the authority from the Jingjiu Experimental Middle School in Fuyang said that the students kneeled because they were asking the teachers' forgiveness for a fight at the school, not because they were being punished.

According to the report, the Yingdong district education bureau confirmed that the teachers involved were dismissed by the private school because they did not stop the students from kneeling and created negative publicity.