Over 41,000 candidates below the age of 16 are among the 2.03 million students who registered for the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), according to real-time data from the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB).
Figures obtained from JAMB’s registration dashboard on Tuesday revealed that a total of 41,027 underage candidates participated in the national examination, despite recent reminders from the Federal Ministry of Education reinstating 16 years as the minimum age for admission into tertiary institutions.
As of Monday, the Board had recorded 62 cases of examination malpractice, underscoring ongoing challenges in securing exam integrity.
The Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, recently reaffirmed the 16-year age benchmark, emphasizing that candidates below this age are generally ineligible for admission. However, he noted that academically gifted students scoring 80 percent or more in the UTME—equivalent to 320 out of 400 marks—may be considered under exceptional circumstances.
JAMB Registrar, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, echoed this position in a recent meeting with key education stakeholders, stating that the Board remains committed to academic excellence while upholding policy standards.
This announcement followed the reversal of an earlier policy under former Minister Prof. Tahir Mamman, which had raised the admission age to 18. The reversion to the 16-year benchmark has since garnered support from several education stakeholders.
In a related development, Dr. Alausa has directed that by November 2025, the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) and the National Examinations Council (NECO) must begin administering objective tests via Computer-Based Testing (CBT). Full CBT implementation for both objective and essay components is expected by the May/June 2026 examination cycle.
The Ministry says the shift aims to further combat exam malpractice and align Nigeria’s testing standards with global best practices.
