By Tony Obiechina, Abuja

The Federal government has exempted students of the Federal Government Academy, Suleja, Niger State and other gifted students from the law mandating the admission age for entry into tertiary institutions as 18 years.The Minister of Education, Prof. Tahir Mamman, announced this when he led officials of the ministry including the Minister of State, Dr Yusuf Sununu to inspect ongoing renovation work of some facilities in the school on Thursday.

“Underage criteria may not apply to the gifted students as we are already developing a criterion to guide what will be called gifted children,” he explained. Mamman also extended the resumption of the Academy, by 10 days noting the extension was necessary to give more time to those working to complete their work while making the environment conducive for learners.The minister said that the tour was necessary to ascertain the level of progress in the renovation of some of the school facilities which include the students’ hostels, toilet facilities, school clinic, laboratories, and the skills and acquisition centre.He said the extension was necessary to give more time to those working to complete their work while making the environment conducive for learners.“This is the only school of its type in the country, which is the National School for the gifted, where we are supposed to assemble students who demonstrate special aptitude and capacity.“For us, we need to showcase the school and to do that, we need to ensure that necessary infrastructure is there and the academic environment is suitable for that purpose.“This school started with old facilities, and maintenance is a problem. What we have seen doesn’t answer our expectations of the school that it should be.“They have achieved some mileage, and that is not the destination we should be looking at, so we are here to inspect the school,” he said.While lamenting the decay in infrastructure facilities in the school, the Minister pledged massive support of the ministry to elevate and bring the school to the standard it should be.He commended the Parent Teachers Association (PTA) and the old students for their active community engagement in mobilising others to improve some of the facilities seen in the school.The school, which is expected to resume for the 2024/25 academic session on Sunday, September 8, will now resume on September 18.Established in 1986 by the former military president Ibrahim Babangida, the school is fully funded by the federal government for gifted students.