Exceptionally brilliant under-16 candidates can now take UTME, says Oloyede

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) says exceptionally brilliant candidates below 16 years can now sit for its annual Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).

Is-haq Oloyede, the registrar of the board, spoke on Inside Sources, a Sunday news programme on Channels TV.

Earlier, Tunji Alausa, the minister of education, said the ministry is looking to set 16 years as the minimum entry age for tertiary institutions.

Waiving an initial policy that was to cap tertiary school admission at 18, he said a limit of 16 years would be maintained for students who prove to be exceptionally intelligent.

Oloyede, in his interview, said the board has created what he described as the “Exceptionally Brilliant Window” will create a room for gifted under-16 candidates to write the UTME.

“In Nigeria, there are many brilliant students, we have so many excellent people,” the registrar said.

“We are enforcing the 16-year minimum entry into tertiary institutions but some people are saying there are exceptional students. Yes, there are exceptional students but they are just one in a million.

“We are saying 16 years is the minimum but if you know you are exceptional, register for exceptional candidacy – that is you are less than 16 years old and exceptional.

“I’m surprised, just from Monday to now, over 2,000 have registered in the whole country. Some of them are 10, 11, and 12-year-olds whose parents have found crooked ways of jumping classes.

“Normal children cannot grow at a rate higher than their biological age. What parents are now doing is increasing the age of their children, they are doing everything, affidavit of age and everything.

“The parents want to use the children to decorate their CVs. They want to say I am the mother of a lawyer, my child graduated at age 13.”

Recently, JAMB introduced a trial-testing mock examination to serve underage candidates from 2025.