Students of the National School of Drama on Wednesday staged a protest and accused the institution of neglecting their education and focusing more on hosting festivals, The Indian Express reported. To drive their point across, some students covered the word “drama” on the institution’s signboard with a card that read “festival”.

The students alleged that their final-year productions – Tukda Shahar and Ujala Syah – were cancelled because the locations were not ready. They claimed the technical staff were focusing on preparing sites to host festivals. Students wrote over the institution’s upcoming Bal Sangam festival posters to protest against the school. “Natak festival mahatwapoorna hai ya humari training [Is the festival important or our training?]” and “Show cancel, festival kyon cancel nahin? [Why is the show cancelled, but the festival still on?]” were some of the slogans on the posters, the English daily reported.

The protesting students have demanded a meeting with all department heads, permanent faculty, dean (academic) and dean (welfare), registrar, deputy registrar and representatives of the workers’ union. A meeting held on Tuesday ended inconclusively.

NSD Director Waman Kendre Registrar P K Mohanty declined to comment, the English daily reported.

India will host the eighth edition of the India Theatre Olympics in 2018.