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, Federal Capital Territory.

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.

On skills acquisition for those who cannot gain admission into tertiary institutions, Mr Mamman said the ministry is taking skills to pupils from primary school.

“Overall, it is 20 per cent that can be admitted into the university, polytechnic, and colleges of education systems.

“So, where will the 80 per cent go? That is why the issue of skill acquisition is very important.

“Any student who is unable to proceed to tertiary institutions should be able to have a meaningful life after primary and secondary school education, and the only solution to this is skill acquisition,” 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 (CBT) had reduced examination malpractices to the barest minimum.

Mr Sununu commended the board for setting a simple but high standard for the examination.

(NAN)

People's Gazette: https://gazettengr.com/fg-sets-18-years-as-minimum-entry-age-into-tertiary-institutions

If they strictly enforce their law of minimum 6yrs entry into the primary schools and outlaw "double promotions", everything else will fall into place.

Gulder

For what?

Why not make addmission to university uniform. Why will some from the north get 80 out of 400 get admitted while some from the south with 150 can’t get admitted.

You people know who to go after

PRIVATE UNIVERSITIES!

FG there are more paramount issues to decide on.

What of Maximum Age for Graduation.

So what happens to the 15 year old that completes secondary school .

Hmmm good one.
I only fear desperate parents that would go extra mile to manipulate their child age 15,16,17 go turn 18 with with just another falsified birth certificate.
I doubt this new law would work.
Nigerians are experts in age falsification.

I don't think this is a good decision

This is good, maybe now those parents trying to rush their kids through school will slow down

Good one... Next is banning creches and kid should start schooling at minimum of age 3.

How does this solve anything

I honestly do not support this. So if a child graduates from secondary school at 15 and clears his/her WAEC. What the government is telling us is that if the child's parents cannot afford a private school, the child would stay idle at home for 3 years before giving university education a shot.

That's like delaying the academic advancement of that child. Very bad if you ask me.

And for the records, I finished my secondary education at the age of 15.

Rubbish policy. Allow them to graduate young and add value to the system while their brains are still very active.

I graduated from the University at 18 and I have never regretted it for a day. It took me several years to get my first full-time job that I was truly satisfied with. So government ought to factor that also.

You want to waste their productive years in a country where employers will be asking for 4 years work experience at 22.

Karl Witte – Age 13
Witte was born in July of 1800 and was the son of a pastor named Karl Heinrich Goffried Witte. His father encouraged a rigorous learning environment and program. By the time Witte was nine years old he could speak German, French, Italian, Latin, and Greek. When he was still very young, he attended the University of Giessen in German and graduated with his doctorate at the age of 13. He still holds the Guinness Book of World Records’ record for youngest doctorate and this distinction still stands.

Witte’s father wrote a book about his program of education called The Education of Karl Witte: Or, The Training of a Child. This book was highly criticized in German and fell out of favor. It was almost nonexistent in the country. However, the book became a huge hit in China and became a bestseller at the beginning of the 21st century. Millions of Chinese had hoped that their child would turn out to be just like Witte: A child prodigy.

The University of Giessen today is officially known as Justus-Liebig-University Giessen. The German system of higher education is very different from that of the one in the U.S. They do not have a tripartite system of BA/BS, MA, then PhD. Rather, German students go through a phase of advanced and junior studies for four semesters and then take an intermediate exam. Upon passing this exam, the student can then proceed to advanced and senior studies (6-8 semesters). This gives the student access to their first degree exams> The next level of study after that is the doctoral level.

Much of the rest of Witte’s life is clouded in mystery. It is said that he traveled through Italy in 1818 and had sought to become a lawyer at one point. However, he became known for and published on the works of Dante. His love of literature drew him to the epic poet and he spent his career as a Dante scholar.

Kids of these days no get that patience..
Them Wan rush through life....
I see alot of people faking their ages...

Alot of kids especially the ones with strict parenting just want to leave the house by all means!!

I support this gesture from FG

We need mature minds in the universities not babies

Imagine a lecturer shouted at a student and the next thing is the student starting crying 😂

More reason we're having weak men in the society now

May not be achievable as long as corruption is still deeply-rooted, cos some parents will still go ahead to obtain new birth certs or sworn affidavit to claim d required age. We kuku don't av proper birth/death records or database to smoke them out.

tnerro1:
Why not make addmission to university uniform. Why will some from the north get 80 out of 400 get admitted while some from the south with 150 can’t get admitted.

The answer is straight forward. It's a leverage because you always look down on the North as being UNEDUCATED. Mind you, there is Quota system in the United States of America too which blacks enjoy because whites have always claim that black are not intelligent and should be given a chance.

Kim Ung-Yong – Age 15
Born in March of 1962, Ung-Yong was a child prodigy and is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records has having the highest IQ at 210. He was speaking at the age of 6 months and he understood algebra at the age of 8 months. By the time he was 2 years old, he was fluent in Japanese, Korean, German, and English. By the time he was three, he had mastered a number of other languages. In 1967, he appeared on Fuju TV in Japan and solved differential equations on live TV. Also during the show, he wrote poetry in English, Mandarin, Spanish, Vietnamese, Tagalog, Japanese, and Korean.

Ung-Yong was a guest student at Hanyang University in the subject of physics from the age of 3 to the age of 6. When he was 7, NASA invited him to come to the U.S. from South Korea. He eventually ended up at Colorado State University as a PhD student and finished his doctorate at the age of 15. In 1974, NASA hired him as a researcher and he did this for about four years. However, he felt he had spread himself too thin and decided to return to Korea in 1978 where he pursued a career in civil engineering. He eventually received his second doctorate in civil engineering in Korea.

In terms of Colorado State University, where Ung-Yong received his first doctorate, our very own site has ranked a few of the online PhD programs there in our Top 10 Online Doctoral Programs in Leadership 2016 at #1 and our Top 9 Online Doctoral Programs in Engineering 2016 at #7. U.S. News and World Report ranks Colorado State University at #127 nationally and #236 globally.

Ung-Yong served as adjunct faculty at Chungbuk National University and, in 2014, became an associate professor in Shinhan University.

It should bev16 and not 18
Secondly, how about the case of prodigies and geniuses. Such people need special educational attention

tnerro1:
Why not make addmission to university uniform. Why will some from the north get 80 out of 400 get admitted while some from the south with 150 can’t get admitted.

If you want to gain admission into a unity school, you're not competing with people from other states, you're competing with students from your state of origin.

Great news.
And they should set 1 year mandatory for all secondary school leavers to learn a skill before university.

Smiles......... But the 6-3-3-4 educational system is no more applicable in most parts of Nigeria. Even JAMB saw this and fixed 16 years as minimum age to write JAMB.

16 years is rational, times have changed. Review the 6-3-3-4 system to the reality on Ground..... 5-2-3-4 system or 5-3-2-4 system and draw up a curriculum that can embrace this new change.

Many Jobs interview fix max age at 25years. If you enter some 9ja uni at 18 years for a 5 years course na 6 years you go spend and that takes you to 24 years.... Add NYSC and you are 25/26 years.......Not Eligible to apply for some juicy jobs.

Leave it at 16 years, many will gain admission at 17/18 years normally..... In case Dem write JAMB 2/3 times.

Aaaaahhh

Children wey their parents don push them to skip class go enter ss3 at age 15 go come do Wetin with the next 3 years?

I’m kuku in support

Balamurali Ambati – Age 17
As we move closer to our number 1 in the list, the feats of intellect begin to get more impressive and Ambati doesn’t disappoint. When Ambati was 4 years old, he was already doing calculus. Later, he attended Baltimore City College and graduated with his undergraduate degree at the age of 11. Also, when he was 11, he co-authored a research monograph on AIDS. His undergraduate work at New York University prepared him for his future profession. He completed a degree in Biology at the age of 13 in 1991. He went on to do work in medical training at SUNY – Buffalo and then received his Medical Doctorate from Mt. Sinai School of Medicine at the age of 17. He is the youngest medical doctor ever and is entered in the Guinness Book of World Records as such.

Ambati then went on to do residencies and internships at North Shore University Hospital, Beth Israel Medical Center, and Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary. He then proceeded in a fellowship in cornea and refractive surgery at Duke University Eye Center in 2002. He then received a PhD from the Medical College of Georgia. In 2008, he joined the faculty at the Moran Eye Center at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City.

Since Ambait received his first doctorate from Mt. Sinai School of Medicine, we will look more closely at that institution rather than others here. U.S. News and World Report ranks Mt. Sinai at #21 among Medical Schools in the nation for research. Further, U.S. News ranks Mt. Sinai at #25 for best Medical Schools with a concentration in Primary Care. In terms of specialty programs, U.S. News ranks Mt. Sinai at #3 in Geriatrics. In terms of globally, U.S. News ranks Mt. Sinai at #159. QS Top Universities ranks Mt. Sinai’s Life Sciences and Medicine division at #163 globally.

This is a step in the right direction .
This should be sponsored as a bill and inevitably become a law. One of the many advantages are: anyone who finishes secondary school at 16 should learn a good skill before varsity. Our youths are so unproductive after varsity because they have no skills and add no value to the society. This will reduce high rate of prostitvtion (hook-up) and internet fraud (yahoo) for those will venture into them because of lack of job.