22,000 signed online petition to postpone GATE exam in view of Covid situation

More than 22,000 candidates have endorsed an online petition demanding that the Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE), which is scheduled to be held between February 5 to February 13 in offline format, should be postponed in view of the rising cases of Covid-19 across the country.

GATE is conducted for admission to various postgraduate courses in science and engineering, and several PSUs also use its score in their recruitment process. It is jointly organised by the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bangalore and seven Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) at Bombay, Delhi, Guwahati, Kanpur, Kharagpur, Madras and Roorkee on behalf of National Coordination Board (NCB)-GATE, department of higher education, ministry of education.

IIT Kharagpur is the organising body for GATE 2022 and more than eight lakh candidates are expected to take the exam.

The online petition that started last week, signed by 22,680 students by Tuesday afternoon, stated, “With the current third wave, Covid-19 due to its new variant Omicron has spread severely in several states, cities. 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. Therefore the peak is most likely to coincide with the usual exam dates of GATE.”

“If the exam dates are not postponed, the candidates appearing for GATE 2022 run an imminent risk of getting infected and spreading it thereby getting threat to their life as well as their family member's lives…On behalf of the GATE participants who have signed this petition, I request you to postpone the GATE 2022 exam dates to a safer date in the month of April,” it added.

Priyanshu, a candidate from Haryana’s Narnaul district, said that his examination center is at a distance of 140 km from his place. “If I travel during this third wave, I will not only risk my safety but my family’s as well. Ironically, IIT-Kharagpur has postponed its upcoming alumni meet in view of the pandemic situation. But the GATE exam will be held putting our safety at risk,” he said.

Despite several attempts, IIT-Kharagpur did not respond to the emails sent for a comment. A senior official at the ministry of education said, “There is no talk about postponing the exam. The exam will be held with taking all precautionary measures and a large majority of the population is already vaccinated against Covid-19 infection. Postponing the exam will put the careers of lakhs of students at stake.”