This year, over 8 lakh students are expected to appear in the exam.
With less than a month before the commencement of GATE 2021, thousands of students who will appear in the Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering have demanded for a postponement. Over 23,000 candidates appearing for the GATE examination have joined a petition demanding the exam be postponed in view of the third wave of COVID-19, according to PTI.
GATE is scheduled to be held on February 5, 6, 12 and 13 and the admit card for which has already been released. Candidates can download the hall ticket on the official website-- gate.iitkgp.ac.in. It is one of the biggest exams in India in terms of the number of participants. This year, over 8 lakh students are expected to appear in the exam.
Several studies including one done by IIT Kanpur predict that the peak of the 3rd wave is expected in early February and the wave will end by April. The candidates are quite anxious as GATE will be held between February 5 to 13. Several students took to twitter to raise the issues amid Covid surge.
"COVID cases are increasing day by day. In this difficult time we urge @EduMinOfIndia @IITKgp to postpone GATE 2022 for the safety of our students or allow them to change the center," a social media post reads.
"As the country is facing peak of covid 3rd wave, @IITKgp @EduMinOfIndia @dpradhanbjp it's a genuine demand to postpone GATE 2022 exams." another user wrote.
"If UPPSC mains is postponed where has only 20k to 30k students has to appear then why not gate where 8 lakh students has to appear," a student wrote.
"Universities , colleges and hostels getting closed, all exams getting postponed. Even organising institute postponing their reunion .Why risk the health of all 1 million gate aspirants in this third wave?? " another student wrote.
GATE is a recruitment-cum-admission test that primarily tests the comprehensive understanding of various undergraduate subjects in engineering and science for admission to the masters programme and recruitment by some public sector companies. The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur is the organising body for GATE 2022.
GATE 2022 will be held in two slots on the exam days. The first slot is from 9 am to 12 noon and the next one is between 2:30 pm and 5:30 pm.