Yemi Obafemi
The Minister of Education, Prof Tahir Mamman, has reiterated that children should be 18 years before been consider for admission into Nigeria universities.
Speaking to newsmen after monitoring the ongoing Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination, UTME, in some of the centres in Abuja. The minister said some of the UTME candidates were underage.
According to him , underage students are the one causing problems in universities adding that this time around the ministry will look at the aspect of age.
He said:“As we know, this examination is going on throughout the country. It is being monitored everywhere seamlessly, and from the report I have heard, the malpractice level is very low, just 100 out of 1.2 million. I believe that the use of technology has made that happen, so this is very good.
“The other thing that we noticed is the age of those who have applied to go to the university. Some of them are really too young. We are going to look at it because they are too young to understand what university education is all about.
“That’s the stage when students migrate from a controlled environment where they are in charge of their own affairs. So if they are too young, they won’t be able to manage properly.
“That accounts for some of the problems we are seeing in the universities.
“We are going to look at that. 18 is the entry age for university. But you will see students, ages 15 and 16, going to the examination. It is not good for us. Parents should be encouraged not to push their wards or children too much.”
