JAMB’s Logic Of Under-16 Varsity Admission Policy
BY adopting a policy to give very brilliant underage students a chance to study in the universities, Nigeria may not be going against the global tide. What is important is the balance that the education authorities tried to strike to ensure that children’s education is not unduly rushed in a way that creates more problems than the country wants to resolve. In particular, tertiary institutions do not need students who are not psychologically prepared for the onerous task of higher education. And secondly, parents should not be encouraged to rush their wards unduly into an arena meant for mature minds. Against this backdrop, the stringent steps endorsed by the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB), along with the Federal Ministry of Education, deserve public support.
In the steps of Education Minister, Dr Tunji Alausa’s earlier declaration that there would be exceptions for highly talented under-16s, JAMB Registrar, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, announced grounds for a waiver. Expectedly, these would allay concerns about the “academic abuse” of sending children who are not psychologically and emotionally ready into the demands of university education, prevent age falsification, and protect candidates from undue parental pressure.
From 22 to 26 September 2025, JAMB will conduct screening for 599 exceptional under-16 candidates. The venues are Lagos (397 candidates), Owerri (136) and Abuja (66). These teen prospects must show a Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) score of at least 320/400 (80 per cent), a post-UTME result of at least 80 per cent, and a minimum of 80 per cent (24/30 points) in a single West African Examination Council (WAEC) or National Examinations Council (NECO) sitting. The Prof. Taoheed Adedoja-led special technical committee charged with the exercise will also administer subject-specific tests, brief oral interviews, and request result details from WAEC to confirm the qualifications of certain shortlisted applicants before their interviews.
The JAMB Registrar’s sync with the Minister towards implementing the Federal Government policy is applaudable and deserves replication across all Ministries, Departments and Agencies. Also, the stakeholders who stood their ground, insistent on the policy shift, should be appreciated for being reformist about the new realities of Digital Age education. “People have been doing it in other parts of the world. We are not reinventing the wheel,” Oloyede clarified, adding: “This policy is not just about age; it’s about maturity, capacity, and long-term well-being.”
However, as inspiring as Oloyede’s “in other parts of the world” remark is, there are underlying concerns. Often, the country has had challenges with superimposing such evaluations on its peculiar social operating system. This is Nigeria, where the definition of ‘thorough screening’ risks diverse interpretations among the various officials and stakeholders tasked with gatekeeping inflow into ivory towers. If the Ministry of Education administers the under-16 clause sustainably, it must emplace guardrails that make short-circuiting the process almost impossible.
From the Pacific shores to the Mediterranean coasts, the grim actualities of modernisation are catching up fast with humanity. The feverish demands of marrying income and professions, for instance, have set many South Korean women on a path to ruling out childbirth. Happily, their Nigerian counterparts have yet to arrive at such a startling intersection. Nevertheless, many of its would-be mothers are already trapped in the vicious race to make ends meet. Gone are the days when more Nigerian women had ample time to mother their children. Now, under intense pressure, little ones must be hurriedly embryoed, birthed, run down universities’ conveyor belts, and pushed out into a ruthless world, barely feathered.
Nigerians have been receiving saddening news about suicides among university undergraduates who appeared intellectually sound to secure admissions, but were, seemingly, ill-prepared for how to maintain emotional balance when life happens. Recently, a 200-level medical student of the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, Osun State, reportedly took his own life after failing an examination twice. It may be rightly argued that the inability to withstand the vagaries of human existence is not confined to age limits. However, the scary pattern indicates a fundamental flaw: the pressure on Nigerian parents to ‘shine’ through their little geniuses might be coming at the expense of the children’s emotional stability.
Records highlight the case of Sufiah Yusof, who entered Oxford at 13 to study mathematics, but whose journey was not triumphant. Her struggles prompted public debate on whether children should be pushed into such advanced academic paths. In contrast, a decade earlier, Ruth Lawrence had become a household name in Britain when, at just 12, she entered Oxford to study mathematics, graduating with a first-class degree a year later. Today, she is a professor of mathematics at the Einstein Institute of Mathematics, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and a researcher in knot theory and algebraic topology.
While Sufiah’s story was grabbing the attention of headlines in the UK, Valsa Koshy, then director of the Able Children’s Centre at Brunel University, remarked, “As a mother and an educationist…we should not be encouraging very radical acceleration for children.” Similarly, Ken Bore, then director of the National Association for Gifted Children, said: “Normally, we would not advise such an early entry because the young person’s maturity is often not developed sufficiently to be able to function effectively with much older people.”
Nevertheless, it is an injustice to impose a single law that fits all. Paradoxically, among Nigeria’s under-16s, there would be found wisdom and an array of experience that many far older cannot display. However, beyond the Adedoja-led committee, there is a need for authorities to draw up a comprehensive post-admission support system for the proficient undergraduates. There should also be consistent post-policy monitoring that ensures objectives are being met and modifications whenever situations demand.
Proponents and opponents of the policy must step out of their trenches and unite to make it work. Whether under-16 or 18-plus, the youngsters are the nation’s children and future. They must be bolstered in all ways possible. Additionally, parents must be temperate and resist the pressure to hastily flaunt their children as bragging rights. A country where universities often lack viable guidance and counselling units, and where mental health remains cloaked in stigma, must be extremely cautious about thrusting its under-16s into the social whirlpools of higher institutions.
If the exemption is properly managed, it could become a fulcrum for grooming a new generation of innovators, scientists, and thought leaders at a younger age. Badly managed, however, it risks becoming a disturbing addition to Nigeria’s list of social problems: spawning a generation of intellectual giants with the emotional stability of toddlers.
