The leadership of the House of Representatives has assured Nigerians that there is no need to panic over the issue bothering admission into the university by students below 18 years old.
The House Majority Leader, Hon. Julius Ihonbvere, gave the assurance after over two hours of meetings held with the Minister of Education, Professor Tahir Mamman, and the Association of Private Schools Owners of Nigeria (APSON).
While stressing that the Federal Government’s position on the 18-year entry point was in tandem with existing laws, he however noted that efforts are being made to address various concerns.
He said, “Nigerians do not need to panic; there is no problem at all. First, nothing has been said about WAEC and neck in terms of the age for writing the exams.
“Second, what the Minister said was basically drawing attention to the existing law, which says, Your child goes into school at the age of six, then the 6-3-3-4 if you should follow that process, you’ll be 18 by the time you go into the university.
“Of course, there’s room for children that are exceptional, that are super gifted. And we need to work out a way to accommodate those children.
“But the Ministry is also working on a new policy for direction in education. So we can queue up or take care of some of these existing abnormalities, and some of the defects in the system. Also bringing in the private sector—the private schools—so that we currently have whatever problems exist there in terms of getting our children ready for the right exams.
“And the House Committees chaired by very capable gentlemen—honourable members are also ready to work with the Ministry to provide holistic solutions to whatever challenges we are having in the education sector,” Hon. Ihonbvere noted.
On his part, Minister of Education, Professor Tahir Mamman, explained that the meeting was convened to enable the House to understand the existing policy on the limitation on children doing examinations and accessing admissions into the university and what the Federal Government is doing about it.
He said, “So, we just have this interactive meeting with the House to clarify certain things actually, one of which is that we never said students by 18 or below 18 cannot do examinations. We never said that.
“But what we had said is that Nigerians and their parents should follow the existing laws and policies in admission and training of their children into the university or tertiary education.
“Because it is good for everybody, it’s good for the children, and it’s good for the system to be guided by the trajectory for educating and training a child, not to be jumping years and years, and then people get into the universities at an age that they shouldn’t—10, 11, 12, 13, 14, you know all those years.
“And you get people passing examinations, but they have no knowledge, no learning, no character, nothing, and that is not the natural way for developing a human being.
“So, we all agreed we are going to look at the areas where a lot of them may be affected, so that we can mitigate some of the problems, like those who are just about to finish their schools, you know, and there are many out there. We are going to look at how they can be assisted and then when to commence the policy.
“Remember last year, we said it was supposed to be effective from 2024, but we granted a waiver for 2025, so these are some of those things we are looking at,” the Minister said.
While speaking, APSON National Deputy President, Hajiya Maryam Magaji, who dismissed the misgivings over the purported prohibition of students below 18 years from getting admission into the university, disclosed that “the Minister has already said that he didn’t say that children under 18 should not sit for WAEC and NECO.
“But among ourselves we believe and we are… that for the children that are, let’s say, 17 years old and they have finished their SS3, so how are we going to handle those children? But now we are… after they have graduated, let there be room for entrepreneurial skills for the children. We are ever ready to accept that and cooperate.”
She, however, urged the government to provide incentives and funds no matter how little it is for the children who are to undergo the entrepreneurship skill acquisition programmes.
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