Moments after pegging the minimum admission year for tertiary institutions in the country at 18, the federal government has maintained the existing stipulation of 16 years as entry point.
By Emma Ogbuehi
Moments after pegging the minimum admission year for tertiary institutions in the country at 18, the federal government has maintained the existing stipulation of 16 years as entry point.
With the new development, candidates who are 16 years old would be considered for admission into tertiary institutions for the 2024 academic year.
Stakeholders at the ongoing 2024 Joint Admissions Matriculation Board (JAMB)’s policy meeting on Education holding in Abuja, had protested when the Education Minister, Prof Tahir Mamman made an announcement, pegging admission at 18 years.
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The minister who was unable to proceed with his address as a result of the uproar, had asked “Are we together?” However, the stakeholders had responded with a resounding “No!”
The minister who initially seemed unperturbed with the development, continued with his address as he tried to give reasons for pegging the new admission benchmark at 18.
Although the announcement elicited mixed reactions from vice-chancellors, rectors and registrars present at the meeting, the minister decried the activities of some parents, who he accused of pressuring their underage wards to get admission into tertiary institutions.
The minister said that the 18-year benchmark is in line with the 6-3-3-4 system of education.
Professor Mamman added that for those who will not be able to gain admission into tertiary institutions, the Ministry of Education is taking skills to pupils from primary school.
It took the intervention of the Registrar of JAMB, Prof. Is-haq Oloyede, to restore order to the policy meeting. But the minister later accepted the suggestions of the stakeholders that those from 16 years and above should be eligible for this year’s admission while the law would apply from next year.
The Minister noted that the meeting was to ensure that the process of admission for 2024/2024 was fair. He said the position of the Federal Ministry of Education had not changed from any institution that does admission outside the right process, which is the Central Application Process (CAP).
The policy meeting on education is an annual event. The forum, usually attended by vice-chancellors of universities, rectors of polytechnics, monotechnics, and innovation enterprise institutes, provosts of colleges of education, and other critical stakeholders, considers and approve the guidelines for tertiary institutions’ admission processes.
