If you are not up to 18 years you cannot gain admission into Nigerian universities —Federal Government decrees
The Minister of Education, Prof. Tahir Mamman, has banned students below 18 years from writing the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) and seeking admissions into Nigerian universities and other tertiary institutions.
The Minister gave the order in his address at the ongoing 2024 Policy Meeting on Admissions into Tertiary Institutions in Abuja on Thursday.
The policy meeting is a forum of critical stakeholders in the admission processes into tertiary institutions in the country including university vice-chancellors and registrars, rectors and registrars of polytechnics, provosts, and registrars of colleges of education, JAMB registrar and other officials of the examination body, among principal officers of monotechnics.
“JAMB is hereby instructed from admission this year to admit only eligible students. That is those who have attained 18 years by our laws,” the minister said.
However, after the announcement, the participants started grumbling, forcing the minister to pause his speech until normalcy was restored.
While reacting to the grumblings from the participants, he insisted that the law requires that their children should be in school at 18 years, having attended six years in primary school, three years in Junior Secondary School and three years in senior secondary school.
He said they have to decide to remain and work within the law or not.
The Minister noted that the meeting was to ensure that the process of admission for 2024/2024 is fair.
He said the position of the Federal Ministry of Education has not changed from any institution that does admission outside the right process, which is Central Application Process (CAP).
One of the participants who did not want to be named said: “That is not possible, how can a child finish school write WAEC and JAMB and passed and you deny him admission?”
He said it is the faulty of JAMB for allowing under aged children to write the examination.
