The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) yesterday said it will begin the screening of over 500 exceptional candidates below 16 years of age seeking admission into tertiary institutions for the 2025/2026 academic session between September 22 and 26.
The board said the screening would be done by a special technical committee it has set up. It also said three venues have been selected for the screening: Lagos, Abuja, and Owerri, Imo State.
The JAMB Registrar, Prof. Is-haq Oloyede, said these were among the resolutions reached during yesterday’s virtual meeting of the board.
He said Lagos will host 397 candidates, Owerri 136, and Abuja 66.
Oloyede announced that of the 41,027 underage candidates who sat the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), more than 40,000 did not scale the first hurdle.
The registrar explained that the screening is meant to ensure that only exceptional and well-prepared underage candidates gain admission for the 2025/2026 session.
“People have been doing it in other parts of the world. We are not reinventing the wheel,” he said.
During the meeting, a sub-committee, chaired by Prof. Taoheed Adedoja, a former Minister of Sports and a renowned expert in special education, presented its report on the planned assessment. It stated that candidates would face subject-specific tests that would be followed by a brief oral interview.
The committee also resolved to request the result details from the West African Examination Council (WAEC) to verify the eligibility of some shortlisted candidates before they appear for the interviews.
Participants at the virtual meeting included heads of tertiary institutions, government agencies, civil society representatives, members of the Nigerian Academy of Education, and the principal of Federal Government Gifted Academy, Suleja.
Of the 1.955 million candidates who sat this year’s UTME nationwide, 599 scored above 300 but fell below the minimum admission age of 16, prompting the creation of the screening committee.
The policy aligns with the Federal Ministry of Education’s directive that sets 16 as the minimum entry age for tertiary institutions.
The initiative is designed to ensure that candidates admitted are mentally and psychologically prepared for the demands of higher education.
The Nation/John Micheal
