The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has emphasized that students below the age of sixteen (16) would not be considered for admission into tertiary institutions for the 2024/2025 session.
JAMB made the assertion on Sunday through its spokesperson, Fabian Benjamin.
Speaking during a press conference, Benjamin stated that the move is based on the directive from the Chairman of the 2024 tertiary admission policy meeting, who is also the Honourable Minister of Education, Prof. Tahir Mamman.
He said in line with the decision taken at the policy meeting, the minimum age for admission remains 16 years.
The JAMB spokesperson noted that the move is necessary in order to save the integrity of the education system.
“For the 2024 admission cycle, candidates who will be at least sixteen years old at the time of admission will be considered eligible. This decision follows the directive from the Chairman of the 2024 tertiary admission policy meeting, who is also the Honourable Minister of Education, Prof. Tahir Mamman, SAN,OON that the extant policy of 6-3-3-4 be enforced only from 2025 session.
“The alarming avalanche of obviously false affidavits and upsurge of doctored upward age-adjustments on NIN slips being submitted to JAMB to upgrade recorded age is dangerous, inimical and unnecessary. Only those below 16 would not and should not be admitted in accordance with the decision of the 2024 Policy Meeting,” he said.
Fabian further expressed concern over the new trend of what he described as a strange admissions practice labelled as “Daily- Part-Time” (DPT) by certain polytechnics and “Top Up” (TU) by some universities.
According to him, such programmes are not approved by the relevant authorities and are fraudulent means to “side-line quality, approved quota for full-time admission, falsify records and consequently, rake illegitimate income.”
The JAMB official cited an example of the advertisement placed by Adeseun Ogundoyin Polytechnic, Eruwa, in Oyo State, inviting candidates to apply for its two-year Daily Part-Time (DPT) programme.
“It is crucial to clarify that no such programmes are approved by the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) nor by National Universities Commission (NUC). Both are also alien to the education system in Nigeria.
“They are fraudulent devices to side-line quality, approved quota for full-time admission, falsify records and consequently, rake illegitimate income and derail the ambition and career of innocent (and some equally crooked) candidates. The candidates with zero or abysmally low UTME score are rationally attracted to such contraption which would lead to nowhere.
“Part-time programmes are strictly regulated, allowing institutions to admit only up to 150% of the approved full-time capacity. However, some institutions have been found to admit an excessive number of candidates through this unrecognized DPT programme, merging them with full-time students in classrooms and purporting to graduate them at the same time with full time students,” he noted.
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