The Minister of Education, Prof. Tahir Mamman, on Thursday announced a ban on admissions for candidates under the age of 18 into tertiary institutions in the country.
Mamman announced during the 2024 policy meeting of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board.
“JAMB is hereby notified that there is now a ban on underaged students, those under the age of 18 into our tertiary institutions from this 2024 admissions,” Mamman said.
The minister, said the Federal Government was considering the adoption of 18 years as the entry age for admission into universities and other tertiary institutions of learning.
However, after the Minister of Education, Prof Tahir Mamman, made the announcement at the meeting, stakeholders across tertiary institutions in the country, resisted turning the session into a rowdy one.
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.