FG backtracks, gives institutions go ahead to admit 16yrs for 2023/2024 admission

The Federal government has granted permission to tertiary institutions across the country to offer admission to students who are 16 years and above in the 2023/24 admission exercise.

This was among the decisions reached at the policy meeting on the 2023/2024 admissions in Abuja.

The new age of 18 year for admission is expected to take effect next year.

The federal government had earlier in April directed that admission to tertiary institutions should not be given to candidates less than 18 years old.

The Minister of Education, Professor Tahir Mamman, gave the directive during a monitoring exercise of the ongoing 2024 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) in Bwari, Federal Capital Territory.

The Minister had them decried the activities of some parents, who were pressuring their underage students to get admission into tertiary institutions

The decision would later be met with protest from stakeholders across the country.

However, the minister has now backtracked and agreed that students who are not 18 but had already written the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination be offered admission following protest by stakeholders at the Policy meeting organised by the Joint Admissions and Matriculations  Board (JAMB).

The minister said during the meeting: “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.”