The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has expressed serious concern over the increasing number of falsified and upwardly adjusted age declarations on National Identification Number (NIN) slips submitted by candidates.
The exam body highlighted that the trend of underage candidates manipulating their ages to gain university admission is becoming a dangerous, harmful, and unnecessary practice.
JAMB has now mandated that only candidates who will be at least sixteen years old at the time of admission will be considered eligible for university entrance. This directive was issued by the Chairman of the 2024 tertiary admission policy meeting and Minister of Education, Prof. Tahir Mamman, according to a statement by JAMB spokesperson Fabian Benjamin.
The enforcement of the existing 6-3-3-4 education system will commence from the 2025 academic session. The statement partially read: ”
This position is informed by the discovery of widespread and unethical practices whereby some institutions collude with candidates to falsify crucial details. These include backdating the year of entry and adjusting ages to use certificates of genuine candidates with similar names, facilitating illegal admissions, and enabling fake candidates to participate in the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) scheme.”
