The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, JAMB, has raised alarm over an upsurge in the number of doctored and upwardly adjusted age declarations on NIN slips being submitted by candidates.

The exam body expressed worry that the trend of underage candidates falsifying their age to gain admission into the university has become dangerous, inimical and unnecessary.

JAMB has now insisted that only candidates who will be at least sixteen years old at the time of admission will be considered eligible for admittance into the university.

A statement by the board’s spokesperson, Fabian Benjamin, said the directive came from the Chairman of the 2024 tertiary admission policy meeting and Minister of Education, Prof Tahir Mamman.

He said the extant 6-3-3-4 on education will be enforced only from the 2025 academic session.

The statement partly read, ”This position is informed by the discovery of widespread and unwholesome practice whereby some institutions collude with candidates to falsify vital details, such as backdated year of entry and subsequent age adjustments, to utilise certificates of genuine candidates with similar names to facilitate illegal admissions to enable participation of fake candidates in the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) scheme.”