Jamshedpur, Dec. 11: Uncertain of what the future holds for them, around 300 students of Adarsh Madhya Vidyalaya squatted on the Karandih-Jugsalai main road today, blocking traffic for over one and a half hours.

The students — up to Class VII — staged the protest to draw the district administration’s attention to the prevalent “mismanagement” in the institute.

The students, led by some teachers, sat on the road around 9 this morning after they found the school closed.

The children were angry as they argued that classes in the past and examinations today were jeopardised due to alleged infighting in the school management.

“From today, we were to write our final examinations but when we reached the school at 8.30 am, we found the main gate closed. The night guard was also missing from his room,” said one of the students. “When the guard returned after 15 minutes he told us that he had been asked by the school management not to open the gate.”

Mahadev Murmu, a teacher who extended support to the children, said trouble started around two years ago when government aid started flowing to the school.

“The management has got divided into two factions. One group wants to remove some of the old teachers, who have been there for the past two decades, and replace them with new teachers. A member of the management even accepted bribe, in kind, from some aspirants.

“The other faction is opposed to the move and almost every day there is one problem or the other,” alleged Murmu.

The teacher said students were the biggest victims of factionalism in the administration. In the past six months, he added, classes became irregular and the syllabus could not be completed.

“Today, when we came to know that the school will not open for the examinations, we decided to come out in the open and support the students,” he said.

Shankar Singh Sardar, the president of Birsa Memorial Society — the organisation that runs the school — admitted that there were some problems in the management.

“There are some teachers who never do their work properly and we were only targeting them. With the help of some anti-social elements they started creating problems and forced us to keep the school closed today. This, despite the fact that the students were to answer their exams,” said Sardar.

He, however, did not give a specific reason for the school closure.

The road blockade was lifted at 11.30 am after Sardar assured the students that the management would “solve the problems forever”.