Abuja, Nigeria
Prof Tahir Mamman, Minister of Education, has announced the waiver of the age of 18 years benchmark for admission into tertiary institutions in the country.
The minister had on Thursday at an ongoing policy meeting organised by the Joint Admission Matriculations Board (JAMB) in Abuja, announced that only applicants who were 18 years and above were eligible for admission.
The development sparked controversy amongst stakeholders across tertiary institutions in the country and kicked against the pronouncement of the minister.
A rowdy session followed Mamman’s statement by the stakeholders in the hall.
Seen the reactions of the participants and with a move to control the situation, the Minister asked; “Are we together?”, to which the attendees chorused “No!”
JAMB Registrar, Prof Ishaq Oloyede, had to intervene before normalcy was restored in the hall.
Speaking further, he insisted that the law required that their children should be in school at 18 years, having attended six years in primary school, three years in Junior Secondary School and three years in senior secondary school.
He said 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).
One of the participants who did not want to be named said: “That is not possible, how can a child finish school write WAEC and JAMB and pass and you deny him admission?”
After the whole scenario, 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.