The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board on Wednesday said it will begin screening for over 500 exceptional candidates below 16 years of age seeking admission into tertiary institutions for the 2025/2026 academic session between September 22 and 26.

The exercise will be conducted by a special technical committee set up by JAMB, according to resolutions reached during a virtual meeting of members on Wednesday.

Speaking during the meeting, Registrar of JAMB, Ishaq Oloyede, said three venues have been selected for the screening: Lagos, Abuja, and Owerri.

He said Lagos will host 397 candidates, Owerri 136, and Abuja 66.

Oloyede, who noted that out of 41,027 underage candidates who sat for the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), more than 40,000 did not scale the first hurdle,  explained that the screening is to ensure that only exceptional and well-prepared underage candidates gain admission.

“People have been doing it in other parts of the world. We are not reinventing the wheel,” he said.

During the meeting, a subcommittee led by Prof. Taoheed Adedoja presented its report on the planned assessment, stating that candidates will face subject-specific tests followed by a brief oral interview.

The committee also resolved to request the result details from the West African Examination Council to verify the eligibility of some shortlisted candidates before they appear for interviews.

Participants in the virtual meeting included heads of tertiary institutions, government agencies, civil society representatives, members of the Nigerian Academy of Education, and the principal of Federal Government Gifted Academy, Suleja.

Recall that out of the 1.955 million candidates who sat for this year’s UTME nationwide, 599 scored above 300 but fell below the minimum admission age of 16, prompting the creation of the screening committee.

The policy aligns with the Ministry of Education’s directive setting 16 as the minimum entry age for tertiary institutions.

The initiative is designed to ensure that candidates admitted are mentally and psychologically prepared for the demands of higher education.

Four universities,  the Air Force Institute of Technology, Kaduna; Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, Bauchi; University of Jos; and Osun State University, have already informed JAMB that they will not admit underage candidates under any circumstances.

JAMB says the policy will balance academic excellence with cognitive maturity, prevent age falsification, and protect young candidates from undue parental pressure.

The Board is targeting only candidates who score at least 320 in UTME (80%), achieve a minimum of 80% in post-UTME, and secure at least 80% (24/30 points) in a single WAEC or NECO sitting.

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Stakeholders in the education sector have, again, criticised the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) over the sudden change of the recently released 2025 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) results.

The stakeholders, who spoke in separate interviews with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja, are demanding independent investigations into the matter and overhaul of the council’s management team.

They contended that subjecting WASSCE, a standardised evaluation for secondary school leavers and basic requirement for tertiary institution admissions, to “trial and error” is unacceptable.

According to them, inconsistencies in such high-stakes examinations could damage the credibility of Nigeria’s academic qualifications, both locally and internationally.

It would be recalled that WAEC, on July 4, released the 2025 WASSCE results and announced that only 38.32 per cent of its 1,969,313 candidates secured credits in five subjects, including English Language and Mathematics.

The mass failure had attracted strong criticism, with parents and some groups calling for the cancellation of some of the papers, especially English Language and Mathematics.

Subsequently, WAEC said it discovered technical glitches during an internal review and temporarily withdrew access to the results.

After reopening its online results portal on Friday, Aug. 10, the pass rate was revised upward to 62.96 per cent, effectively doubling the initial figure.

At a news conference in Lagos, WAEC said, after reviewing the process, the new statistics indicated that a total of 1,239,884 of the 1,969,313 candidates, representing 62.96 per cent, now have five credits including English and Mathematics.

The Council linked the initial discrepancies to “serialisation issues” in subjects such as Mathematics, English, Biology, and Economics.

The development, however, sparked reactions from stakeholders, including candidates, parents, and teachers.

The Founder, Exam Ethics Marshall International (EEMI), Ike Onyechere, questioned the council’s credibility and the integrity of Nigeria’s education assessment system.

Onyechere described the development as “a national disaster,” accusing WAEC of “bastardising the entire education process.”

“You cannot make such a serious examination a subject of trial and error. Today the pass rate is 38 per cent, tomorrow it becomes 63 per cent.

“How are we supposed to trust the authenticity of these results?” he queried.

Onyechere called on the Federal Ministry of Education, the Presidency, and the National Assembly to launch an urgent investigation into the matter, insisting that those at the helm of affairs in WAEC should be reshuffled.

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The Management of the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, has raised an alarm over the disappearance of a female student of the institution for four days.

The university Public Relations Officers (PRO), Mr Abiodun Olanrewaju, who disclosed this in a statement on Sunday, August 10, stated that the missing student identified as Dorcas Oseghale, of the Department of Chemistry, with Matric number: CHM/2021/165, was last seen on the evening of 6th of August, 2025, at about 8:00 P.M.

“When Dorcas, who resides at Adesanmi House, Ibadan Road, Ile – Ife, said that she was going out to buy food in front of the students’ village, along Ede road axis of the University, did not return on time, her roommate then made several attempts to reach her on phone but surprisingly discovered that her two lines were not reachable,” the statement read.

“At around 3:00 pm on the 7th of August, 2025, a report of a missing female student was intercepted on a student’s social media platform, and the security unit of the university started tracking the conversation around the incident.

“But around 6:10 pm on the same day, a group of students from the Department of Chemistry, in search of the missing student, alongside a female student (Akinkuade Omobolanle Beatrice), from the Department of Agricultural Extension, identified as her roommate, reported a case of a missing student at the security unit of the university.

“Considering the complexity of the case and its limitations in terms of human and material resources, the security unit then detailed three of its personnel to lead the students and report its preliminary findings to the Nigerian Police, which have enough manpower with sound professional and technical expertise to unravel the mystery surrounding the “disappearance” of the student, for further investigation.

“Meanwhile, the Vice Chancellor of the University, Professor Adebayo Simeon Bamire, has lauded the students of the university for being their brothers’ and sisters’ keepers, thanking them for quickly noticing that one of them is missing and promptly reporting the same to the appropriate quarters.

“The Vice Chancellor then appealed to the Police and other security agencies to do all within their power to help find the missing student.

“Professor Bamire also appealed to anybody who may have useful information that can assist the security agencies in the whereabouts of Dorcas Oseghale to report to the nearest police station or the security unit of Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife.”

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