Bengaluru: Medical and dental aspirants in the State will now have to write the National Eligibility Cum Entrance Test (NEET) from the 2017-18 academic year onwards as per the State government’s announcement. With this, the Common Entrance Test (CET) will no longer be the gateway for admission to medical and dental courses in Karnataka from next year.

As per the notification of the Karnataka Examination Authority (KEA) on its website, the CBSE Board will conduct NEET. NEET is a single national entrance test for admission to medical colleges across India. Medical and dental aspirants have to necessarily qualify in the NEET examination.

AS NEET is being conducted for the first time in Karnataka for government-shared seats, KEA put up information on its website on the question pattern, eligibility criteria, how to register for NEET, syllabus and also uploaded the NEET 2016 question paper.

The seats in government colleges and government quota seats in private colleges will be filled through NEET scores. KEA had been conducting entrance examinations for various professional courses like MBBS/BDS/Bv.Sc/BE/Farm Science, ISHM and Pharma courses earlier.