The second semester exam of Kolhan University was rescheduled on Thursday after teachers of the constituent colleges went on a mass leave to press for their long-pending demands, affecting 22,000 students in the process.

The papers, which were supposed to be held on Thursday, will now be conducted on October 12. The paper scheduled for October 12, will in turn be held on October 25.

The second semester UG exams under the choice-based credit system (CBCS), which began on Wednesday, are supposed to get over on October 31.

Though Kolhan University had notified about the change on Wednesday evening, many students who weren’t aware of the development, turned up at their respective centres.

Students were supposed to write their history, philosophy, Hindi, English, Bengali, Odia, Urdu Sanskrit, Maithil and tribal language papers between 8:30am and 11:30am on Thursday. The exams are being held in 17 centres across the Kolhan region.

“When we turned up at the centre, some officials told us that the exam has been rescheduled. We had come prepared and it was disheartening,” said Shradha Kumari, a student of Jamshedpur Worker's College, who was supposed to take the test at Jamshedpur Co-operative College. However, the Part I UG exams under the old syllabus were conducted from 1pm at a few out of the total 11 centres on Thursday.

Teachers across the state universities have been demanding the implementation of Seventh Pay Commission recommendations, promotion under the career advancement scheme, setting up of an inter-university board to take care of the welfare of teaching and non-teaching staff, setting up of a university committee to recommend promotion and increase in the number of child care leaves from 90 days to 180 days. The teachers are protesting under the banner of Federation of University Teachers’ Association of Jharkhand (FUTAJ).

Teachers also staged a protest at the Kolhan University office in Chaibasa and submitted a memorandum to vice chancellor Shukla Mahanty.

The protesting teachers, however, said they had informed about the mass leave on September 30.

“We had sent the letter on September 30, but it may have reached the university office on October 1. All university teachers are going on mass leave but on different dates. Today, it was the turn of Kolhan University teachers,” Rajendra Bharati, a member of FUTAJ, said.