Joint Admission Matriculation Board (JAMB), has defended its policy of sixteen years minimum age for tertiary institution admission.
Speaking to journalists, the Acting Director of JAMB Port Harcourt Zonal Office, Mrs. Amina Adaji explained that the board formulated the policy to incorporate students who have proved that they are exceptional.
“Those who are intelligent the board knows of their existence. And what had the board chosen to do?
We have identity forms in the office the candidates will come and make formal declaration as to their exceptional academic abilities with that form filled they are allowed to buy, fill UTME forms and go for the exam and if they pass they are considered. But they should be able to justify they are indeed exceptionally brilliant students,” she noted.
Mrs. Adaji advised parents not to rush their wards into the higher institutions contrary to the laid down procedure.
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“Because for the logical thinking necessary for mathematics, writing, and reading can only be acquired at a particular stage. And for somebody going into the university for instance according to educational psychology, it is at the age of eighteen that you get that social maturity to be able to act independently on people taking decision by yourself.
Why would you send an underaged to the university with the strenuous academic activity?”, she concluded.
The JAMB Acting Director of Port Harcourt Zonal Office lamented that the parents nowadays are too busy to raise their wards at home instead they send them to school at tender age which is detrimental to their development.
