The protest commenced the moment the Minister of Education, Prof Tahir Mamman, made the announcement, pegging admission at 18 years
By Emma Ogbuehi
Stakeholders at the ongoing 2024 Joint Admissions Matriculation Board (JAMB)’s policy meeting on Education holding in Abuja, have protested the new minimum admission age pegged at 18 years.
The protest commenced the moment the Minister of Education, Prof Tahir Mamman, made the announcement, pegging admission at 18 years – a disclosure that forced stakeholders who turned out their members from across tertiary institutions in the country, to express resistance.
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!”
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The minister who 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
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.
A release by JAMB during the week, disclosed that this year’s meeting will review the performance of the 2023 admissions exercise and the 2024 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination, UTME performance of candidates.