After protest that greeted his decision to benchmark entry year into tertiary institutions in the country to 18 years, Minister of Education, Prof. Tahir Mamman, has rescinded the decision.
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He said his decision that only candidates who have clocked 18 years be offered admissions now takes effect from 2025.
To this effect, the minister said heads of tertiary institutions could be allowed to admit candidates who are 16 years of age, gain admission into tertiary institutions of their choice.
The minister was forced to succumb, following the argument that students under the age of 18 had already registered, sat and passed the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination, UTME, and were awaiting admission.
Leading the motion, Vice Chancellor of Elizade University Prof. Kayode Thadius Ijiadunola who got massive support from other heads, registrar and admission officers participating in the policy meeting, proposed 16 as the minimum age requirement for admission into tertiary institutions.
He said, “What happens to those who have written this year’s exams and passed their exams? We reject 18 years as the minimum age requirement and are proposing 16 years.”
While the hall erupted in support of 16 years as a minimum requirement, the Registrar of JAMB, Prof. Is-haq Oloyede, asked where parents and candidates were rushing to?
Oloyede said: “The only point is they have taken examinations and at that time they were not told or aware and therefore if we want to enforce it, it should be from subsequent years.”
The minister in response had said, “I can work with that but I want to remind you of one thing, even that argument cannot stand if we want to go by the law which states 6-3-3-4 as our system of education, it won’t stand but for practical reasons, for this year, I will allow it to stand.”
Reiterating the minister’s decision amidst a resounding applause, Prof Oloyede added, “We thank the minister for conceding but from next year we will enforce it.”
Earlier, the minister while delivering his address as chairman of the 2024 Joint Admissions Matriculation Board’s (JAMB) policy meeting on Education holding on Thursday in Abuja, had called for enforcement of 18 years as the new minimum admission age for admission into tertiary institutions in the country.
Immediately after the Minister of Education, Prof Tahir Mamman made the announcement, the stakeholders who turned out their members from across tertiary institutions in the country, voiced resistance which turned the session into a rowdy one.
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!”
The minister who seemed unperturbed with the development, had continued with his address as he tried to give reasons for pegging the new admission benchmark at 18.
It took the intervention of the registrar of JAMB, Prof. Is-haq Oloyede, to restore order to the policy meeting with his plea of “Please pay attention please!”
The policy meeting on education is an annual event. It authorised the commencement of admission into tertiary institutions in the country.
Meanwhile, the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board,JAMB,has approved 140 as the cut-off mark for 2024 admission into the nation’s universities and 100 for polytechnics and colleges of education respectively.
The National Minimum Tolerable UTME Score (NTMUS), popularly known as the cut-off mark, for 2024 admission into tertiary institutions was arrived at on Thursday during the 2024 annual policy meeting on admissions, which was held at the Body Benchers, Headquarters, Abuja.
The meeting was held following the successful conduct of the 2024 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME). A total of 1,989,668 registered candidates for this year’s UTME.
Out of the 1,989,668 registered candidates, 80,810 were absent while a total of 1,904,189 sat for the UTME within the six days of the examination.
The policy meeting was chaired by the Minister of Education, Professor Tahir Mamman, and decided following recommendations by the heads of institutions.
Registrar of JAMB Registrar, Is-haq Oloyede, who announced the cutoff marks, explained that individual institutions were at liberty to raise their minimum benchmark approved at the policy meeting but could not go below what was approved for various institutions.
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