Don't ask us about MCI instructions on NEET, says CBSE

Days after the Medical Council for India (MCI) barred open school students  from appearing for the undergraduate medical entrance examination, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) is now flooded with queries on the issue that it cannot answer.

Finding it difficult to respond to each student's query, the board has put out a notice recently, urging NEET (national eligibility-cum-entrance test) aspirants not to ask for an answer  on a decision taken by the MCI.

"Follow the instructions given by the MCI. The CBSE has no role to play in it," the board said in its latest advisory to students.

A large number of students and their parents have sought  a clarification on the MCI's decision, requesting the CBSE to allow open school students  to take the  NEET, to be held on May 6.

The MCI barred all open school students, including those who cleared their Class XII board examinations through the National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS), to sit in the NEET in 2018, though it was allowed last year.

From this year, the medical education regulator has also barred students, who have cleared their Class XII board as private candidates, from taking the test.

Both the open school students and private candidates were eligible to sit in the nationwide test till last year.

In 2017, as many as 4,460 students registered for the medical entrance test, of which 4,114 gave the examination and 1,412 qualified.

More than 50% of the successful candidates – 864 to be exact – were from the NIOS.

But in a surprise decision, the MCI's executive council decided to reverse the policy from this year, ignoring  multiple  requests from the NIOS.

Sources said Union Health Minister JP Nadda was "almost convinced" with the NIOS arguments on the issue during his meeting with the Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Prakash Javadekar in January.

However, the MCI had its way.

Apart from the NIOS students, the controversial decision led to denial of opportunity to hundreds of students from six other open schools in Haryana, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar and Chhattisgarh.

"No reply to any such (student's) query on the eligibility condition will be given by the CBSE. The eligibility criteria have been provided by the MCI which is stipulated in the Information Bulletin (released for the NEET 2018)," CBSE said in its advisory.