Open school students now eligible to apply for NEET 2018

Open school students now eligible to apply for NEET 2018

The debate over whether open school students should be allowed to apply for NEET has finally come to an end. In a massive relief to several NEET aspirants, the Health Ministry has decided to allow students of National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) and other open school students to apply for National Eligibility cum entrance exam

In August 2017, the MCI (Medical Council of India), in an official order, stated that students from open schools are not eligible to write NEET 2018. The reason being that they could not equate the education provided in open schools with that of regular schools as there would not be any practical lessons for the former. More than 2 lakh students register every year with NIOS and close to 3,000 had registered for NEET exam in 2017. This decision by the MCI would have deprived thousands of students the opportunity to pursue a career in medicine.

Overturning Medical Council of India's (MCI's) order, the ministry took the action following Human Resource Development Ministry's intervention The decision was overturned following Centre's policy of providing equal learning opportunities to everyone. 

Official notification of the same is yet to be released.