The Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa has announced that the minimum admission age into the nation’s tertiary institutions be pegged at 16 years.
Alausa stated this at the 2025 policy meeting of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) held in Abuja on Tuesday.
TheFact Daily recalls that the country had gone agog when the then Minister of Education, Prof. Tahir Mamman insisted the minimum admission age be 18 years. However, after much deliberations at the 2024 JAMB Policy Meeting on Admissions into Tertiary Institutions, the age was reviewed to 16 for that year alone.
On his part, Dr. Alausa stated that the choice of 16years should not be restricted to 2024 admission but be adopted as the ideal age going forward.
”This policy decision reflects a balance between cognitive maturity and academic preparedness. 16 years is non-negotiable,” he said.
He noted that provisions existed for clearly documented and justified exceptions like gifted children with accelerated educational progress.
Additionally, he warned institutions against attempting to circumvent the rule by altering age records, stressing that such acts would attract sanctions.
He also announced the establishment of a Central Examination Malpractice Unit domiciled in the Federal Ministry of Education and chaired by the Ministry’s Permanent Secretary, Abel Enitan.
He explained that the unit would serve as a national clearing house for documenting and reporting malpractices cases across all levels of education.
”This central database will be accessible to all institutions. It is our hope that this will reduce the tendency to engage in malpractices, as offenders will be appropriately tried under the Exam Malpractices Act,” he said.
The Minister also reaffirmed the government’s stand against examination malpractices by supporting WAEC and NECO to adopt computer-based testing (CBT).
