UTME: National Assembly backs 18 years university admission age

The National Assembly says it will come up with a robust legislation to support 18 years old as entry limit for admission into tertiary educational  institutions.

The Chairman, Senate Committee on tertiary institutions and TETFund, Sen. Muntari Dandutse, said this at the ongoing monitoring of the 2024 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examinations (UTME) in Abuja on Tuesday.

The Katsina South senator was accompanied on the visit by other members of his committee as well as his counterparts from the Committee on Higher Education in the House of Representatives.

Dandutse said though age should not be a barrier to tertiary educational institutions, but the age limit of 18 years as proposed by the Minister of Education is sacrosanct.

His counterpart, Sen. Sunday Karimi, representing Kogi West, said there had been a law mandating admission to be given to candidates who are 18 years old.

According to him, the law has been there but with what is happening, “we are going to amend it and make it robust.”

“Specifically, everybody should have access to education, your age either 40 or 50 or 60 years doesn’t mean you cannot enter the university.

“Age should not be a barrier but there is also an age limit and minimum, you cannot be 12, 13, 14 years and enter into the university.

“Before you can enter primary school, you have to be six years, before you can enter secondary school, you have to be 12 years,  so before you can enter the university, you have to be 18 years,”  Karimi said.

The Minister of Education, Prof. Tahir Mamman had earlier given a directive that admission into tertiary institutions should not be given to candidates less than 18 years.

He decried the activities of some parents, who were pressuring their underage students to get admissions into tertiary institutions.

The minister said that the 18-year benchmark is in line with the 6-3-3-4 system of education.