Police personnel wait in the shade at NIT during the examination. Picture by Srinivas

Jamshedpur, May 5: The crucial end-semester examinations at the teachers’ strike-plagued National Institute of Technology (NIT) began as scheduled today.

About 1,800 students of the college appeared for the examination — amid widespread fears of postponement — with non-teaching staff acting as invigilators and police jawans with carbines under their arms standing guard.

As NIT teachers have been on strike since February — barring a few days in April — the college had sought the district administration’s help to conduct the examination.

Police were deployed as there were fears that the striking teachers would disturb the examination to continue till May 27.

Before deploying the security forces, sub-divisional officer of Seraikela Dinesh Prasad visited the campus.

Today’s papers were held in two sittings — the first began at 9am while the second one began at 2pm and continued till 5pm.

Final year students heaved a sigh of relief as they came out of the examination halls.

“This was a crucial examination for final-year students as most of us have been selected by various corporate houses for jobs and we are expected to submit our certificates by the end of June,” said one Pankaj Singh.

Failing to submit the certificate would result in losing the job offer, he added.

NIT’s acting director Akhileswar Mishra said he hoped the remaining papers would pass on just as peacefully.

“Professor in charge of examinations A.M. Tigga has successfully conducted the examinations. Only he can say how. For me, it was more than enough that the examinations began peacefully,” he said.

Tigga said conducting the exam with the teaching staff on strike was a challenge for the college administration.

Meanwhile, one of the striking teachers, M.K. Agrawal, questioned the bonafides of the exams and wanted to know who had set the question papers.

“It follows a system whereby the question papers are set by those who teach the subjects. How can outsiders chip in to conduct the examination when we are on strike?” Agrawal asked.

It would be impossible for the final year students to get through the end semesters without the participation of the teaching staff, he said.

“Final year students have to do a project under a teacher and marks are allotted by him/her. With most of the teaching staff on strike, how can the college ignore us,” Agrawal said.

Teachers at the NIT have been protesting against alleged anomalies in their career advancement scheme. They have also been demanding the appointment of a permanent director.

Despite the exams, NIT Teachers’ Association secretary A.K. Singh vowed to continue the strike till their demands are met.