Open School, Private Students Not Allowed To Appear In NEET 2018

Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has released the NEET notification 2018 today. National Eligibility Cum Entrance Test (NEET) which is to be conducted for admission to medical and dental courses in India, will be held on May 6, 2018. Contrary to earlier reports which suggested Medical Council of India reverting its decision to not to allow open school students in the exam, the NEET notification has now said candidates who have passed 10+2 from open schools or as private candidates will not be allowed to appear for this national level medical entrance exam. It was reported earlier that, sources in the Union Ministry of Health And Family Welfare had told The New Indian Express a decision had been taken in favour of open students after the Ministry of Human Resource Development opposed the move.

According to the daily, HRD Ministry told the Health Ministry that the MCI order was against the government policy on equal learning and career opportunities for open school students. "Candidates who have passed 10+2 from Open Schools or as Private candidates shall not be eligible to appear for National Eligibility-cumEntrance Test-UG," said the notification. "Furthermore, study of Biology/Bio-technology as an Additional Subject at 10+2 level also shall not be permissible," said the notification. A regular student should pass the subjects of Physics, Chemistry, Biology/Bio-technology and English individually and must have obtained a minimum of 50% marks taken together in Physics, Chemistry and Biology/ Bio-technology at the qualifying examination.

According to reports, more than 2 lakh students appear for National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) class 12 exams. Apart from this, Open School bodies in states are also conduct examinations for class 12 students. NEET 2018 application process is set to start from today and it will go on till March 9, 2018.