JAMB Set Criteria For Candidates Under 16 To Take UTME

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has introduced a special category for exceptionally gifted students under the age of 16, allowing them to sit for the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), despite the general age requirement.

JAMB Registrar, Prof. Is-haq Oloyede, made this revelation during an appearance on Inside Sources with Laolu Akande, a socio-political programme on Channels Television.

“In Nigeria, there are many brilliant students, we have so many excellent people. We are enforcing the 16-year minimum entry into tertiary institutions but some people are saying there are exceptional students. Yes, there are exceptional students but they are just one in a million,” Oloyede stated.

He explained that while 16 remains the minimum age for university admission, candidates who believe they are academically outstanding can apply under the Exceptional Candidacy category.

“We are saying 16 years is the minimum but if you know you are exceptional, register for exceptional candidacy – that is you are less than 16 years old and exceptional,” he added.

Oloyede expressed surprise at the number of applications received within a short period, revealing that “just from Monday to now, over 2,000 have registered in the whole country. Some of them are 10, 11, and 12-year-olds whose parents have found crooked ways of jumping classes.”

He also raised concerns about the growing trend of parents manipulating their children’s academic progression by altering their ages to make them appear older than they actually are.

“Normal children cannot grow at a rate higher than their biological age. What parents are now doing is increasing the age of their children, they are doing everything, affidavit of age and everything,” he noted.

Oloyede further criticized some parents for prioritizing personal accolades over their children’s natural development.

“The parents want to use the children to decorate their CVs. They want to say, ‘I am the mother of a lawyer, my child graduated at age 13,’” he said.