•Students in class
Pegging the entry age for tertiary education has been generating concerns in the country in recent times, with many saying 16 years is the way to go as against 18 years stipulated in the National Policy on Education.
The issue escalated last year when the immediate-past minister of Education, Prof. Tahir Mamman, during a monitoring exercise, discovered that children below the age of 16 were sitting for the UTME, reports Daily Trust.
He raised concern about it and emphasised the need to maintain the 18-year threshold in the policy.
“That’s the stage when students migrate from a controlled environment to where they are in charge of their own affairs. So, if they are too young, they won’t be able to manage properly. That accounts for some of the problems we are seeing in the universities,” he said.
However, this generated a lot of outbursts from parents, students and stakeholders as they said children who have finished Senior Secondary III should not be left to stay at home as a result of age.
However, the present minister, Dr Tunji Alausa, reversed the decision, sticking to 18 years as the entry age and recommending 16 years.
He further summoned a National Council on Education and made a proposal that the 16-year policy on admission into tertiary institutions should be incorporated into the National Policy on Education.
He said: “I am sure many of you have heard about the challenges we face as a nation with talented, bright students being disenfranchised from pursuing tertiary education. In any society, it is crucial to standardise the education of highly functional and exceptionally gifted students.”
“We are now preventing these students, after finishing secondary education at the age of 16, from attending university until they are 18. This delays their development and harms their future. These students are capable and brave. If we leave them idle, we risk exacerbating mental health issues,” he said.
However, the council in a communiqué at the end of its meeting, approved that 16 years be incorporated in the National Policy on Education.
Learners’ age in SS3 in senior secondary schools
Nigeria currently operates the 9-3-4 system, which consists of nine years of basic education, three years of senior secondary education, and four years of tertiary education.
Looking at the trajectory, a child is supposed to start primary 1 at the age of 6 years meaning the child will be 17 at SS3 depending, and is expected to be 18 years at the time of entering tertiary institution.
However, a current report on Senior Secondary Schools in Nigeria shows that many students who are below the age of 15 are already in SS3.
According to the 2023/2024 Senior Secondary Schools data on the age of learners produced by the National Senior Secondary Education Commission (NSSEC), 45,354 Senior Secondary III (SS3) students are below 15 years (meaning they are between 13 and 14 years).
Such students will be sitting for the Senior School Certificate Examination (SSCE) and Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) between the age of 14 and 15 years.
The data shows that the 45,354 below 15 years learners were from 30 states while there is no data for seven states.
The breakdown of data according to states shows that Rivers State has the highest number with 14,168, while Bauchi followed with 6,252 learners and Kaduna with 3,806.
In the fourth place is Lagos with 3,372, followed by Cross River 2,422, Kwara 2,119, Kogi, 1985, Ekiti 1,782, Nasarawa 1,775, Sokoto, 1,706 and Anambra 1,476.
Others are Katsina with 1,433, Zamfara 854, Osun 848, Borno 642, Enugu 276, Taraba 243 and Gombe 198, while 11 states of Abia, Adamawa, Bayelsa, Benue, Delta, Ebonyi, Edo, Niger, Ondo, Oyo and Plateau have zero of under 15 years learners in SS3. Also, six states and FCT have no data under them.
With the above data, it is expected that many under-age learners will be writing the UTME to seek admission into higher institutions.
Recall that the Registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, revealed that over 11,000 underage candidates have registered for the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination.
“It has become a common thing now, where parents whether mothers or fathers are registering their underage children, sometimes due to pressure or other reasons,” he said.
Reactions
Reactions have continued to trail the underage learners seeking admission into tertiary institutions.
A parent, Mr Timothy Abah, said underage learners are found everywhere because of the introduction of crèche and early child education, which exposes children to early learning.
He said he prefers a child to be 18 and mature before going to university but that the reality on the ground weakened his preference.
“Nigerian students suffer so many factors when they get into higher institutions like strikes, insecurity and sometimes crises that keep them away from school and so a child who has been projected to complete his studies at the age of 22 years, may extend to the age of 25 and after he will still wait for one year service, which you cannot guarantee is immediately and after industries will peg employment to 25 years,” he said.
He said it is difficult to do the right thing and so he has to accept 16 years but nothing less.
Another parent, Eucharia Azubuike, said 18 years is the best age to enter university because the child’s brain will be mature enough to handle challenges.
She blamed the surge of underage learners on parents and school owners who are pushing children to school earlier than it is supposed to be.
As a student then, there are many who are in their 20s and don’t even know how to handle issues while in university, so imagine a 16-year-old in university, no doubt he or she can do well academically because they read and studied, but you will see they are lacking in other things.
An educationist, Michael Sule said 16 years is appropriate because there are children who become so intelligent so early and may complete their secondary education before 15 years and it would be wrong to keep them at home because of age.
“The only thing is if a child fails to pass the examination and meet the required marks, he can stay back and rewrite but not stopping them because they are considered underage,“ he said.
Meanwhile, A Mother’s Love Initiative (AMLI), an NGO dedicated to addressing the challenges of raising stable and balanced children in Nigeria, has raised concern about the federal government’s pegging of the entry age to 16 years.
A letter to the federal government seen by our correspondent signed by the Chief Executive Officer of AMLI, Hanatu A. Enwemadu Esq, said: “We firmly believe that every child deserves the opportunity to receive education at the right age and level of maturity, ensuring their ability to effectively manage their affairs and thrive in their academic pursuits.
“We are writing to express serious concerns regarding the National Council on Education’s (NCE) resolution on February 6, 2025, which you chaired, to establish a 16-year minimum admission age for tertiary institutions.”
It raised some questions which include, what will be the corresponding appropriate age for primary school enrollment, how will this policy affect Nigerian students pursuing education abroad, given potential age-based placement discrepancies and how does this policy compare internationally? Could its implementation be detrimental to Nigerian children and youth development?
It, therefore, urged that they carefully consider the policy’s potential impact on the well-being and development of Nigerian children and youths.
They requested that the federal government consider commissioning research on early university admission, evaluate the School for Gifted Children, and investigate post-JAMB exams, research on age and academic success and international comparisons.
Meanwhile, the Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa, has said the ministry is working with JAMB to work out cases of gifted children.
He said: “There’s this 2% that will superbly tell you they’re the geniuses of the world. They operate and function at a higher capacity than any one of us in society. We have to make provision for them, but in a country like ours, that is being abused, we want to stop those abuses.
“Now JAMB has been mandated to do this gifted children placement test, which will be very objective. So if you have gifted children that you want, think or believe they qualify to get to university before the age of 16, they will have to go to that exam.
“If they pass those exams, yes, but if they don’t pass that exam, that will not happen. So we have to create an objective pathway to cater for these gifted children,” he said.
