Stakeholders currently participating at the 2024 Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) policy meeting were rattled when Tahir Mamman, the Minister of Education, announced that candidates seeking admission into higher institutions must be 18 and above.
Immediately after the Minister commented on his address and policy directive, the crowd roared “no, no, no” but Tahir insisted that it is already a policy which the government has keyed into because it is the expectation that candidates are much more mature at 18 years old.
He said if anyone was aggrieved, they could approach the National Assembly for an amendment. He thereby instructed universities to only grant admissions into tertiary institutions to students who are 18 years and above.
According to the minister, students below 18 years are underage and unfit to navigate the unsupervised way of living at the tertiary level.
Recall that Mamman had previously condemned a situation where students find themselves in higher learning institutions, but fall prey to negative vices because of their premature stage.
