FG mulls age review for university admission, gives reasons

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The Minister of Education, Prof. Tahir Mamman, has indicated the government’s intention to reassess the age criteria for admission into tertiary institutions across the nation.

Prof. Mamman, setting 18 years as the standard age for university admission, advised parents against urging their underage children to pursue higher education, especially below the age of 18.

Addressing journalists after overseeing the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) at several centers in Abuja, the minister expressed concern over the age of certain candidates applying for the exam.

He observed that many were below the required age for university enrollment.

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While commending the examination’s orderly conduct, he acknowledged a significant reduction in past irregularities, signaling an improvement in the examination process.

He said: “The examination process is seamless. The environment is comfortable for students. That’s how it should be, especially with the use of technology in our affairs and the educational system. It makes life easy for everybody and seamless.

“As we know, this examination is going on throughout the country. It is being monitored everywhere seamlessly and from the report I have heard, the malpractice level is very low, just a 100 out of 1.2m. It has gone believe that. It is the use of technology that has made that happen, so this is very good.

“The other thing which we noticed is the age of those who have applied to go to the university. Some of them are really too young. We are going to look at it because they are too young to understand what the university education is all about.

“That’s the stage when students migrate from a controlled environment 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 to some of the problems we are seeing in the universities.

“We are going to look at that. 18 is the entry age for university. But you will see students, 15, 16, going to the examination. It is not good for us. Parents should be encouraged not to push their wards, children too much.”