JAMB insists 16-yr admission policy follows national education framework

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has maintained that its 16-year minimum admission age is consistent with Nigeria’s national education framework, dismissing suggestions that the policy is arbitrary.

Fabian Benjamin, the public communication adviser at JAMB, defended the board’s decision to peg the minimum admission age into Nigerian tertiary institutions at 16, on Thursday during a virtual media parley by the Education Writers’ Association of Nigeria.

Speaking at the parley, themed “2026 Admission Policy Review and JAMB Scorecard: A Conversation with the Registrar,”, which was meant to scrutinise crucial issues surrounding admissions and tertiary education in Nigeria, Benjamin emphasised that the policy reflects the progression outlined in the National Policy on Education and the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) structure.

“The requirement was not arbitrarily introduced but was rooted in provisions of the National Policy on Education, the Universal Basic Education framework and the country’s 6-3-3-4 education system.

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“We didn’t just wake up one night and say it must be 16 years. If you go back and look at the National Council on Education decisions, the Universal Basic Education Commission Act and the National Policy on Education, you will see clearly defined age expectations for primary, secondary and university education,” he said.

There have been calls in some quarters for a review of the tertiary admission age benchmark.

The board insists the policy is based on years of monitoring admission processes and student performance across tertiary institutions.

“We operate a system whereby after every admission exercise, we go back to the drawing board and assess the entire process. We look at where the challenges are and come up with policies to address them.

“We have seen over and over again that age continues to play a major role. Beyond academics, education is a serious enterprise. Maturity plays a significant role in who you are, what you want to achieve and how you achieve it,” Benjamin stressed.

However, he emphasised that the policy makes room for exceptionally gifted candidates who demonstrate outstanding academic abilities.

“There are people with peculiar cognitive abilities. That is why there is an exception for gifted candidates.

“Such candidates must attain a particular threshold of performance before they can be considered for admission below the prescribed age,” he noted.

The JAMB’s spokesperson further explained that the exception was designed to ensure that genuinely gifted children were not denied opportunities to advance academically.

“We do not want to exclude gifted children. If a candidate demonstrates that he or she belongs to that category, the person will be given the opportunity.

“Even in other countries, when you see a professor at a very young age, it is because the individual demonstrated exceptional ability. But that does not mean every 12-year-old can simply gain admission into a university,” he said.

Benjamin also recounted a case in which a foreign university queried the academic credentials of a Nigerian student because of the student’s age.

“We had a situation where a university in London wrote to us regarding a candidate seeking admission for a master’s degree at a particular age. They were surprised and wanted us to explain the policy we were operating because they considered it impossible to have attained such qualifications at that age.

“We responded and explained the circumstances, and the university was shocked,” he said.

He reiterated that the age policy would continue to guide admissions while allowing room for exceptional cases, when he said, “If, in the future, any institution asks questions about a candidate admitted below the prescribed age, we can explain that the candidate demonstrated exceptional capacity and met the requirements set for gifted students.”