The Gazette of India has notified the new rules for NEET examination. The union health ministry has given a new rule to make NEET examination mandatory for students going abroad to study MBBS. The medical students will neither be allowed to sit for the screening test nor to be registered under a medical council of Indi as a doctor. This decision will make the entry-level qualification for medical education equal for all candidates. As per the Supreme Court order passed in April 2016, clearing the Supreme Court made NEET mandatory for undergraduate and postgraduate medical and dental admissions.

There is a very strong reason behind this decision. It is said by the Health ministry that medical institutions / Universities of foreign countries admit Indian students without proper assessment or screening of the student’s academic ability to cope up with medical education with the result that many students fail to qualify for the Screening Test.

A common national entrance exam— NEET— is mandatory for admission to all medical courses abroad.

Of the 12 lakh aspirants who take NEET for the undergraduate medical course every year, six lakh clear the exam for about 68,000 MBBS seats. The rest try for dental and Ayush (Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha, and Homoeopathy) courses. On average, about four lakh students are left to look for other avenues each year. An estimated two to three thousand students go abroad to study medicine.

Students have to qualify through a screening test called the Foreign Medical Graduates Exam (FMGE) to practice in India after obtaining a primary medical qualification (MBBS) overseas.

The health ministry mentioned that this decision talks about the quality of the students as well as education. Currently, anyone who scores 50% in the 12th boards is eligible to go abroad to study medicine. These days scoring 50% isn’t very difficult, which is why MCI proposed making NEET mandatory.