Dharan, September 18:

Students of all the 22 community schools here today boycotted the terminal exams of the secondary and lower secondary levels, saying the exams were being conducted without completing courses. They also vandalised several schools and burnt tyres in front of the Shahid Memorial Secondary School at Dharan-9. The students, in different groups, went to different schools and disrupted exams there.

The District Education Office was slated to conduct the terminal exams in Dharan from today.

Students from another school created obstacles in the exam for Nepali subject this morning all of a sudden, said the school headmaster, Dal Bahadur Chhaya, adding that the exam had to be stopped following pressure from students.

The protesters snatched answers sheets and tore them up as teachers in some schools, including the Sharad Balika Secondary school and Gyanodaya secondary school, refuse to stop the exams.

Since the stipulated course has not been completed we boycotted the exam, said Nawaraj Bhattarai, a 10th grader in the Chandra Sanskrit Secondary School.

Teaching in the schools was disrupted due to months of agitation by the temporary teachers, another student, Dilan Rai, said, adding: “How could we give the exam when the course was not completed.”

Students are demanding that the exams be held after Tihar. Some 22,000 students in 22 community schools in Dharan have been affected by the agitation of teachers. The date for re-examination will be fixed after holding talks with students and headmasters, said chief at the Resource Centre (Dharan), Mahendra Kayastha.