FG fixes 18 years as minimum entry age into Nigerian tertiary institutions

Voice Air Media, VAM News Update

The federal government has directed that admission to tertiary institutions should not be given to candidates less than 18 years old.

The Minister of Education, Tahir Mamman gave the directive on Monday during a monitoring exercise of the ongoing 2024 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) in Bwari, FCT.

He decried the activities of some parents pressuring their underage students to get admission into tertiary institutions.The minister said the 18-year benchmark is in line with the 6-3-3-4 education system.

“The minimum age of entry into the university is 18, but we have seen students who are 15 or 16 years old going in for the entrance examination.

Parents should be encouraged not to push their wards too much. Mostly, it is the pressure of parents that is causing this. We are going to look at this development because the candidates are too young to understand what the whole university education is all about,” he said.

Corroborating the minister’s position on the benchmark of 18 years for admission to a tertiary institution, the JAMB spokesperson, Fabian Benjamin, said 18 years is in line with 6-3-3-4 education. The Minister of State for Education, Yusuf Sununu, who was on the monitoring team, applauded the conduct of the 2024 UTME, particularly the introduction of online examinations to check malpractices.

He said the computer-based test (CT) had reduced examination malpractices to the barest minimum. Mr Sununu commended the board for setting a simple but high standard for the examination.

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