Reversing the entry age for admission into universities and other tertiary institutions in Nigeria from 16 to 18 years will be anachronistic and an indication of gross misunderstanding of the issues that plague university education in the country. It is no longer realistic and, therefore, should neither be contemplated nor adopted.
The Minister of Education, Tahir Mamman, who hinted that the Federal Government was considering the reversal when he monitored the 2024 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) in Bwari, Federal Capital Territory, decried what he called the propensity of parents to pressure underage students to write the examination. According to him, the 18-year benchmark is in line with the 6-3-3-4 system of education policy.
“The minimum age of entry is 18, but we have seen students who are 15, 16 years 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. This is the period when children migrate from controlled environment to uncontrolled environment; when they are in charge of their own affairs,” he submitted.
The minister’s position was supported by the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Tertiary Institutions and TETFund, Muntari Dandutse, who said the Senate was set to amend the law to make 18 years the minimum age for university admission in the country. According to him, the move would prevent minors from gaining admission. A member of the committee, Senator Sunday Karimi added that 18 years was appropriate because one has to attain six years to enter primary school, and be 12 to enter secondary school, which terminates at 18 years. He said the law was already there but requiredan amendment to make it more robust and enforceable.
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) is also in support of the proposednew entry age policy. President of the union, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke described it as the right thing to do, notingthat the policy was not new, except that regulators were yet to enforce it.
Curiously, the National Parent-teacher Association of Nigeria (NPTAN), sided with the advocates of 18 years as university entry age. NPTAN national president, Alhaji Haruna Danjuma wants the West African Examinations Council (WAEC), the National Examination Council (NECO) and the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) to stop registering underage candidates to make the policy work effectively.According to him, it’s risky for parents to rush their children’s education.
These positions notwithstanding, we enjoin policy formulators and implementers to be mindful of the fact that in this age and time, a combination of reason, experience and data does not support a hard and fast rule about learning and legislating a minimum entry age for universities. With advancement in technology, new generation of learners have shown a propensity to adapt faster and be more open-minded. They are able to do things faster than it took children of their age in time past. Today’s expectations in the education sector are different from the goals set in the 80s and 90s. Therefore, we recommend constant review and upgrade of policies.
While it is true that the 6-3-3-4 education policy targets age18 for students to graduate fromSenior Secondary School (SS3), there arecases of exceptionally brilliant students who run through the system much faster and are well prepared to engage the rigours of tertiary learning. There are stories of students who complete their secondary education at age 14 and have gone to graduate at 18 from universities. Such gifted pupils may have gained double promotion to classes that met their abilities without shortchanging the system.
The age requirement that is usedby JAMB is 16 and so far, that appears fair to all sides. Students do not have to idle away two years to attain 18 before they go to university. The system has adjusted itself to that reality, which is face-saving for a government that lacks the will to implement the full gamut of the 6-3-3-4 education system.
According to the Journal for Sustainable Development in Africa (Volume 23, No1, 2023), the effectiveness of a public policy depends on certain basic pre-requisites. The policy recommended that the 3-3 components are used to equip students with vocational skills to make them self-reliant in case they do not need tertiary education. The journal concluded that the policy did not achieve its objectives due to lack of power, lack of adequate skilled manpower to transfer skills, lack of local technology and other factors.
We add that government has never been serious with any of its policies and it is therefore tendentious of policy managers to single out the age requirement into university as reason to validate a policy that has failed woefully.
Besides, we proffer that there are more serious issues to engage the minister and his supporters in the National Assembly, including adequate funding andraising the standard of curriculum to levels they were in the 60s, 70s and 80s, whenthere was a measure of commitment in funding and policy implementation.
We assert that years of policy summersault and knee-jerk reactions to weightier matters have never helped the polity. Maturity cannot be circumscribed within the limits of age but should accommodate the measure of anindividual’s cognitive ability.Let this not be another distraction to arrest the development oftalents who are gifted to excel educationally.
