The Registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Prof. Is-haq Oloyede, has announced the introduction of a special category, the “Exceptionally Brilliant Window”, for candidates below the age of 16 to sit for the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).

Prof. Oloyede, a former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ilorin, disclosed this while speaking on “Inside Sources with Laolu Akande”, a socio-political programme aired on Channels Television on Sunday.

He reiterated JAMB’s commitment to enforcing the minimum entry age of 16 years for tertiary institutions while acknowledging the existence of exceptionally gifted students who may be ready for higher education at a younger age.

“In Nigeria, there are many brilliant students; we have so many excellent people. 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,” he stated.

The JAMB Registrar further explained that while 16 years remains the general requirement, younger candidates who consider themselves exceptional can now apply under this special category.

“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,” he said.

“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,” he remarked.

Prof. Oloyede criticized the practice of some parents who push their children into tertiary education prematurely for personal gratification.

“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,” he observed.