Age Limit: Barring Young Admission Seekers Dangerous—DELSU Don Warns FG

By Jennifer Anthony/Joseph Ado/James Omage

A Professor of Sociology at Delta State University, Abraka, Prof. Victor Jike, has urged the Federal Government to abandon the controversial policy seeking to bar admission seekers below 18 years from gaining admission into Nigerian universities.

Jike described the move as both “surprising” and “anachronistic,” arguing that no research supports a correlation between age and academic achievements.

The professor stated his stance on the policy in an exclusive interview with DELSU Echo in Abraka on Tuesday.

Recall that the Minister of Education, Prof. Mamman Tahir, had in a recent television interview reiterated the federal government’s policy prohibiting students under the age of 18 years from enrolling in examinations that would grant them access to higher education.

Tahir stated that the federal government has instructed the West African Examination Council (WAEC) and National Examination Council (NECO) to enforce the 18-year age limit for all candidates wishing to take these examinations, emphasizing that the minimum age for admission to Nigerian universities remains 18 years to align with the country’s 6-3-3-4 system of education.

While faulting the policy, Jike observed that admission seekers should be admitted on the basis of merit rather than age, adding that children of the current generation “are ahead of their age.”

“So if you deny them admission, then you are actually creating more difficulties for them because they will have anxiety problems and they will have psychological problems. Once they are able to cope, allow them to go and become the arrowhead of development in the place,” he said.

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“It is actually a plus for a country to have people who are very young and who are very excellent in academic reasoning.

“They (government) should not dampen the enthusiasm of these young people. People should be admitted even if they are 12 years, so long as they are doing well academically.

“Most of the children who are less than 18 years are in the sciences, where things are numeric, and these young ones can even beat the so-called old people in sciences and even in the social sciences.”

Jike, who is also the proprietor of Holyfield International School, Abraka, said the age limit policy was ill-conceived, coming at a time when the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB), in collaboration with Nigerian universities, is lowering the cut-off marks for university admission.

He urged the federal government to shelve the proposed age bottleneck and concentrate efforts on improving infrastructure in tertiary institutions to enhance the quality of teaching and learning in Nigerian schools.

Meanwhile, a Delta State-based human rights activist, Dr. Paul Bebenimibo, has called on Governor Sheriff Oborevwori to assume responsibility over the reconstruction of the dilapidated 70-kilometer Sapele-Abraka-Agbor road.

Bebenimibo, in an open letter to Oborevwori, insisted that the obvious neglect of the road by successive administrations in the state is totally unjustifiable.