By Onilede Titi Faith
The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), has announced new guidelines for admitting candidates under the age of 16 into Nigerian tertiary institutions as it begins screening 599 exceptional students who scored 320 and above in the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).
According to JAMB Registrar, Prof. Is-haq Oloyede, the policy aims to provide a pathway for exceptionally gifted candidates who meet high academic and maturity standards while ensuring that tertiary institutions maintain quality and readiness requirements.
To oversee the process, JAMB has set up a 23-member National Committee that will handle the screening, vetting, and evaluation of eligible candidates.
Under the guidelines, candidates must have scored at least 320 in the UTME and attained a minimum of 80 percent in the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) or its equivalent.
They must also score at least 80 percent in the post-UTME screening of their chosen institutions, even if those institutions do not normally conduct such exams.
In addition, a compulsory affective and psychomotor assessment will be conducted to evaluate the candidates’ emotional and social readiness for higher education.
Prof. Oloyede explained that while the law currently sets the minimum entry age for Nigerian tertiary institutions at 16 years, JAMB’s new approach is designed to accommodate rare cases of exceptional talent without compromising educational quality.
The screening process will involve multiple stages, including institutional assessments and independent verification by JAMB’s committee.
The final list of successful candidates is expected to be released by mid-September 2025.
He added that the policy was informed by increasing calls from parents and stakeholders to create an avenue for academically gifted but underage students to further their education without bypassing necessary developmental checks.
