The Medical Council of India (MCI) had made an announcement to debar candidates who completed their Class 12 through open and distance mode from attending the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET 2018) as reported in TOI.

The MCI, in a letter sent to the National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS), said that NIOS students would not be on a par with those from the regular mode and they would be ineligible for NEET. The NIOS approached the Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD) to intervene and prevent thousands of capable students from missing the opportunity to make a career in medical field.

Shri Prakash Javadekar, the HRD Minister held an important meeting on the issue on Wednesday, January 18, following which the Centre decided to revert the MCIs order to prevent NIOS students from appearing in NEET this year. Although there has been no official notification, sources say that the HRD ministry has taken the decision in favor of the students and opposed the MCIs move.

More than 2.5 lakh students register for NIOS every year. In the year 2017, nearly 3,000 students from NIOS appeared for the medical entrance exam, out of which 864 successfully qualified the exam.