By David Torough, Abuja.

Education Minister, Professor Tahir Mamman yesterday, bowed to pressure mounted by Vice Chancellors of universities and heads of tertiary institutions in Nigeria to peg the minimum entry age to Nigerian universities and tertiary institutions at 16 years.

This was just as the nation’s universities adopted 140 as the baseline score for admissions as well as 100 for polytechnics and Colleges of Education (CoEs) for the next academic session (2024/25).

The 16-year age approval came moments after the minister had already announced emphatically in his speech at the opening of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) policy meeting for 2024 that the  entry age would be 18 as prescribed by extant laws of the country, particularly the National Policy on Education.

In his initial directive, the minister had explained that the minimum six years of age for primary education automatically implied that any applicant who began primary school at the prescribed age would have attained 18 years  at the time of completion of secondary education and application for university admission.

The minister’s declaration was however, met with shouts of disapproval from most of the over 3,000 top education administrators in the audience.

As the education administrators sustained their opposition, the Vice Chancellor of Elizade University, Professor Kayode Ijadunola moved a motion for reduction of the age limit to 16.

Ijadunola argued that since the applicants had already taken the UMTE, so the entry 18 years entry age be enforced in subsequent years.

After due consultation, the Minister accepted the proposals from the academic institutions but ruled however, that after the 2024/25 academic session, admission age would be pegged at 18.

He directed JAMB to ensure that adequate publicity as given to the new directive to guide future applicants and parents.

The policy meeting, attended by Vice Chancellors, provosts of CoEs, rectors of polytechnics and heads of education agencies is convened annually by JAMB to adopt admission policies and procedures after the annual Universities and Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).

Mamman warned admission officers and heads of tertiary institutions to adhere strictly to the guidelines as proposed by JAMB and democratically approved by yesterday’s Policy Meeting.

He regretted that improprieties in the admission process had led to the illegal admission of one million students in the universities, polytechnics and COEs since 2017 but warned that such would no longer be condoned.

The minister announced that a new curriculum for secondary schools in the country with emphasis on skills acquisition would be introduced from September and said the new policy would be presented to various stakeholders including the National Council on Education for approval before its eventual launch at the start of the next academic session.

According to the minister, the new policy was the ministry’s response to the problem of unemployment of school leavers and crisis faced by many secondary graduates in the pursuit of admission in the tertiary institutions.

“These young children live with us and we must care about their future,” he stated adding that the graduates with reasonable skills would better fend for themselves if they could not pursue higher education.

The minister warned the recently inaugurated governing councils of Federal Government owned universities and tertiary institutions to ensure they operate according to the laws guiding their respective institutions and to avoid the temptation to usurp the powers of the heads of the institutions on critical issues such as appointment of principal officers and procurement of goods and services.

He also clarified that there was no plan by the Federal Government to privatise any of its tertiary institutions or transfer its management to private hands, contrary to what he described as “propaganda in certain quarters”.

Registrar of JAMB, Prof Is-haq Oloyode, who led participants through adoption of the comprehensive admissions policy for 2024/25 academic session warned that the board will not condone any sharp practices in line with its zero –tolerance on corruption in the admissions process.

He assured that the huge investment in technology by the board had made it impossible for criminally minded applicants to circumvent the rigorous examination and admission processes and vowed that anybody who attempted to manipulate the system would be fished out and punished according to law.

He said some applicants and staff of some institutions were already in police custody over various infractions of the law and assured that the suspects would be taken to court to face the law.