The Minister of Education, Prof Tahir Mamman, has reversed himself within hours as he has now approved that the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) and other tertiary institutions in the country can admit candidates from the age of 16.
Earlier on Thursday, during the policy meeting on the 2024 admission organised by JAMB, and held in Abuja, Mamman ordered JAMB not to grant admission to fresh students below the age of 18, an order which drew protest from heads of tertiary institutions present at the meeting.
The minister’s order attracted loud grumbles from the stakeholders consisting mainly of heads of tertiary institutions, registrars, and their admissions officers.
The policy meeting is a forum for 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, the JAMB registrar and other officials of the examination body, and principal officers of monotechnics.
Mamman, however, considered the memorandum for the 2024 policy meeting on this year’s admissions, following the heated arguments which trailed his order on underage admissions.
The representative of Elizade University moved the motion for objection, and called for the adoption of 16 years as many of those categorised underage candidates had already taken the UTME without anticipating the directive.
JAMB Registrar, Prof Ishaq Oloyede, who convened the meeting, said it was not a new policy or directive.
The minister, however, agreed that candidates from the age of 16 could be admitted and the meeting approved it.
“For practical reasons, we will go with that,” Mamman said, finally drawing applause and cheers from the audience.
Earlier in the day during the meeting he had vowed that the Federal Government would implement the order that only student aged 18 and above should be given admission by JAMB.
He said it was a matter of law and policies, adding that it does not require his comments as it was a provision of Nigeria’s policy on education.
“JAMB is hereby instructed from admission this year to admit only eligible students. That is those who have attained 18 years by our laws,” he had said.
“Our laws require students to be in school from six years —Yes, there are those who do that from five—, and remain in primary school for six years, basic education for three years, and secondary school for three years… It doesn’t require a statement of the minister… we are only restating what is in the law,” he added.
