Parents in Ekiti State have begged the Federal Government to reverse the age restriction policy for tertiary institutions’ admission seekers.
Concerned parents in Ekiti State under the umbrella of Coalition of Concerned Parents, Students and Stakeholders made the appeal through a letter addressed to the Minister of Education, Tunji Alausa, and signed by Adeniran Samuel and Omotayo Omokayode, made available to newsmen in Ado Ekiti , the state capital on Sunday.
According to the letter, the parents appealed to the minister to use his good office and moral authority to cause a waiver for all qualified students who passed the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board examination in 2025, regardless of age, saying, “Direct JAMB to remove the portal restrictions preventing these candidates from processing admission”.
The parents, who decried the policy, saying it had deeply affected the future of young Nigerians, described the policy as “a violation of Section 18(1) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).
This section guarantees the right of every Nigerian citizen to freedom from discrimination based on circumstances of birth, sex, community, religion, or other status.
“The JAMB policy amounts to discrimination based on the circumstance of birth (being born a few months later), by excluding brilliant students from access to higher education, while admitting older, less qualified peers. No matter how plausible the justification JAMB provides, it is constitutionally void if it denies equal opportunity or discriminates against these children.
“It is worth recalling the judgment of the Delta State High Court, which declared JAMB’s earlier directive on underage admissions null and void.
“Given the high rate of failure in the 2025 JAMB examination, it is deeply unfair for JAMB to disqualify deserving candidates who scored above 70 per cent solely because of their age.
“This policy effectively penalises a select group of high achievers, denying them admission despite their exceptional academic performance, in an exam where only a minuscule 7 per cent of all candidates managed to score 250 or higher.
“The criteria for admission should be merit, not an arbitrary age restriction, which gives older applicants who scored 150, the cutoff for universities, an edge over them,” the concerned parents stated.
They urged the minister to “encourage phased implementation of any age policy, beginning from entry into primary or junior secondary school, not at the terminal point of secondary education, where students’ futures hang in the balance.
JAMB has begun implementation of the policy stipulating that only candidates who are 16 years old by August 2025 would be admitted to tertiary institutions.
The implementation is not going down well with many parents and guardians who are kicking against it and seeking a reversal.
Recall that a pressure group, the Movement against JAMB Injustice comprising concerned parents recently protested at the JAMB office in Lagos and the Ministry of Education, describing the age limit policy in Nigeria as unconstitutional and should be discarded forthwith.
