BREAKING: Student below 18 no longer eligible for admission in Nigeria – Minister
*As Oloyede says JAMB now to prevent not arrest for malpractices
By KEMI KASUMU
The Nigeria’s Minister of Education, Professor Tahir Mamman, has ordered the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) not to admit any student between the age of 18 with effect from the 2024 admissions process.
The minister stated this at the 2024 Policy Meeting On Admissions Into Tertiary Institutions, organized by JAMB and held in Abuja of Thursday July 18, 2024.
“JAMB is hereby instructed to admit only 18 years old effective this year. This is the law. Universities are therefore advised to stop recommending unqualified students for admission.
“We need to decide whether we want to stand with the law or we want to stand outside of it. If anyone dies not like it, let him go to back to the lawmaker to amend it.”
The minister, considering what he described as vital point by stakeholders saying candidates had already legitimately taken the UTME for 2024 before the new directive came, noted that there could be excuse for ignorance in law but shifted ground a little saying, “The order will now be effective from subsequent year”.
In the meantime, JAMB Registrar Is-haq Oloyede has said its regulatory body will henceforth prevent education malpractices through prevention and not arresting anyone for same.
The DEFENDER reports that the JAMB policy meeting, where the declarations were made on Thursday, is an annual event where stakeholders from various tertiary institutions in the country sit to decide on appropriate minimum tolerable scores that candidates can score as UTME marks for admissions in the current academic year.
The meeting also sets the tone for the year’s admission exercise and guidelines by which all institutions must admit students.
Asides the age of 18 for admission approved, which was unanimously agreed upon to take effect from subsequent admission year (2025), it was also approved that henceforth, any institution admitting students must make their dos and don’ts public.
The JAMB Registrar, Prof Is-haq Oloyede, said, “JAMB has been sued for offering admission to candidates in institutions where religious doctrine of owners are imposed on students.”
He said any institution is free to choose what students must not eat or which religious practice is acceptable therein but that it must not be hidden, “it must be made public so that students coming in there will know.”
Details later….
