The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has set a date for a special screening exercise for exceptional candidates under the age of 16 who performed well in the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).
This screening, which will assess over 500 candidates, is scheduled to take place from September 22 to 26.
The screening will be conducted by a special technical committee established by JAMB and will be held at three designated locations: Lagos (397 candidates), Owerri (136 candidates), and Abuja (66 candidates).
The committee’s chairman, Professor Taoheed Adedoja, announced that the assessment will include subject-specific tests and a short oral interview.
JAMB’s Registrar, Professor Ishaq Oloyede, explained that out of the 41,027 underage candidates who took the 2025 UTME, only a small fraction met the initial criteria for consideration.
The screening is designed to ensure that only academically exceptional and psychologically mature candidates are granted admission.
The initiative is in line with the Ministry of Education’s directive that sets 16 as the minimum age for entry into tertiary institutions.
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This policy is aimed at balancing academic performance with the cognitive and emotional maturity required for higher education.
To be eligible for the screening, candidates must have scored at least 320 (80%) in the UTME, a minimum of 80% in their post-UTME, and at least 80% in a single sitting of their WAEC or NECO examinations.
In a related development, four universities—the Air Force Institute of Technology, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, University of Jos, and Osun State University—have informed JAMB that they will not admit underage candidates under any circumstances.
