The Federal Government (FG) has set 18 years as the minimum age for admission into tertiary institutions, which was made known on Monday by the Minister of Education, Tahir Mamman during a monitoring exercise of the ongoing 2024 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), he added that it is in line with the 6-3-3-4 system of education.
He said, “The minimum age of entry into university is 18, but we have seen students who are 15 or 16 years old going in for the entrance examination.
“Parents should be encouraged not to push their wards too much. Mostly, it is the pressure of parents that is causing this.
“We are going to look at this development because the candidates are too young to understand what the whole university education is all about.”
Speaking on skills acquisition, he said, “Overall, it is 20 percent that can be admitted into the university, polytechnic and colleges of education systems. So, where will the 80 percent? That is why the issue of skill acquisition is very important.
“Any student who is unable to proceed to tertiary institutions should be able to have a meaningful life after primary and secondary school education, and the only solution to this is skill acquisition.”
