Visit any of our institutions of higher learning and you begin to see toddler-undergraduates all over the place! Boys and girls who should still be in SS1 are already preparing to graduate! Merely looking at them testifies to the fact that they lack the much-needed maturity. They may pass through the university but will the university pass through them? At the tender age that many of these boys and girls gain admission into institutions of higher learning, do they - can they - have a true understanding of the real essence of higher education?

Is that not one of the reasons why we see hordes of university graduates clutching certificates that are more worthless than the paper on which they are printed? We need to conduct a census to know what percentage of our undergraduates are under-aged. They may still be in the minority but their number is growing - and rapidly, too. Our law stipulates 18 years as the minimum age for admission into institutions of higher learning. Many of our universities admit younger candidates, some as young as 14 years! By the time they clock the stipulated admission age of 18 years, they are already graduates! The private universities are the worst hit here.

At the recently-concluded Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB’s) 2024 policy/stakeholders’ meeting held in Abuja, this vexed issue reared its ugly head again. The Minister of Education, Professor Tahir Mamman, started the controversy as he read the Riot Act to the gathering of vice-chancellors, rectors, and provosts of the country’s institutions of higher learning. Anyone who engages in illegal admission would be sanctioned, he said. And it is illegal to give admission to under-aged candidates because the law stipulates a minimum of 18 years of age as one of the requirements for admission.

Mamman explained that under-aged candidates given admission are flung into forced maturity at a tender age - and this is disallowed because of its dire consequences on the candidates. Nature, he said, has a way of catching up with such students. Any attempt to circumvent the law will be met with appropriate sanctions, he reiterated. “Only those who have attained the age of 18 years qualify to be given admission. That is our law. JAMB is to admit only those who have attained the age of 18 years,” he said for emphasis.

Widespread murmurs of disapproval greeted the Minister’s submission. To the high table’s shout of “Are we together?” the expansive hall of the Body of Benchers venue of the meeting erupted into screams of “No, no, no!” It took some time before order was restored. Unfazed, Mamman told the egg-heads he was surprised that those who were supposed to enforce the law were the very ones shouting “No, No, No!”. “This is the law and we are going to enforce it. If you want underage children to be admitted, go to the National Assembly and amend the law. Fortunately, we have members of the National Assembly here.”

All now quiet, Mamman went on to disclose that a new curriculum for our secondary schools was in the works, which would incorporate skill acquisition. In a veiled warning to Governing Councils that abuse their offices and see the institutions they preside over as cash cows, he said procurement as well as appointment of principal officers must be conducted under the ambit of the law. He encouraged the school management to cultivate good relationships with the Unions. “Engage them; we have adopted that method in the past one year and it works,” he said. He canvassed transparency and openness and the need to keep the channels of communication open at all times. He also emphasized the importance of having peace on our campuses.

The business of the day progressed smoothly for some hours until the issue of underage admissions was raised again by the Vice-Chancellor of Elizade University, Ilara-Mokin, Ondo State; he had wanted to know the fate of underage candidates that have been allowed to write the last JAMB examinations. Do they now stand disqualified? The Minister, JAMB's Registrar, Professor Ishaq Oloyede, and a few other dignitaries on the high table conversed. Thinking aloud, Oloyede mooted the idea whether the implementation of the 18-year benchmark be waived for the current admissions, and be made effective as from next year. The minister said he could work with that for the sake of building a consensus; otherwise, the argument advanced would not stand because ignorance of the law is not an excuse. The Minister is a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN).

I have said it before that I am in support of the 18-year minimum age requirement for admission into our institutions of higher learning. I have also canvassed that school-going age should not be less than six years for any child. It was possible in my own days but to implement such these days requires planning and provision of the needed infrastructure. Rural-urban migration has changed the face of our society. Many parents today are working class and must necessarily keep their children in creches and nursery schools at tender ages. When kids start schooling so early, they will also complete their secondary school education very early; at 15, 16 or even earlier. Will they be consigned to sitting at home doing nothing? In those days, there used to be Modern School, Teacher Training College, Higher School Certificate or Sixth Form (Advanced Level); no more!

The government must study how the Chinese and Japanese engage their own children in productive ventures before attaining school-going age of six years. If we also do that here and our children start Primary School at age six, they will be 18 years or thereabout by the time they are through with secondary school education. But to whimsically slam the law of 18-year minimum age without thinking the policy through and putting the necessary infrastructure in place will not achieve the desired results. When we make laws that are impossible to enforce, we encourage criminality.

Can we also ask whether our leaders who make these laws subject their own children, many of whom study abroad, to the jurisdiction of the same or similar age-limit laws? These days, employers set ridiculous age limits for the recruitment of graduates into their employment. Except they enter university as under-aged, there is no way many of today’s graduates can scale the barricade of age limit set by employers of labour. What is the government going to do about that?

JAMB’s Registrar, Oloyede, is into his second term of office. He will be sorely missed by everyone when he quits office not only because of the quantum of work he has put in and the extraordinary improvement he has brought to our university admissions system but also for his candour and sense of humour. He has an uncanny way of stepping on toes without attracting malice. There are no dull moments with him. Advising the provosts of colleges of education to sit together and not scatter themselves all over the hall, Oloyede told them: “You know you are an endangered species!”

There was laughter but the JAMB's Registrar had passed a very important, even if unfortunate, message. Candidates are shunning the colleges of education - and the polytechnics, if I may add - with all attention focused on the universities. The dichotomy between university degree, polytechnic diplomas and college of education certificates has not been adequately addressed. Oloyede advocated that incentives be given to attract candidates into those “endangered” institutions of higher learning. The disparity in remunerations and career advancement between university graduates and non-university graduates should also be removed. When many hands were raised to second a motion, Oloyede sighted one of such hands and said: “I can see a light-complexioned lady raising up her hand. I am a mallam but I am not blind!” Perhaps, a reference to the lady’s good looks!

The disruption caused to the university system by the Academic Staff Union of Universities’ last strike action continues to take its toll. There are three streams of university academic calendar: 2021/2022; 2022/2023, and 2023/2024. The private universities are the only ones up-to-date with their academic calendar. What this means is that the government must bend over backward to avert any new industrial action by ASUU. It also means that students already admitted and who have accepted the admission cannot resume but are just marking time at home.

Time to wield the big stick and Oloyede reminded everyone that JAMB’s name is not only about “admissions” but its mandate also encompasses overseeing the matriculation of students. Schools must give JAMB at least two weeks' notice to witness their matriculation ceremonies. Penalties for defaulters are steep: They will not be eligible for the JAMB-organized award of excellence; there will be no NYSC for candidates not properly matriculated; and there will also be no cover for them with foreign institutions.

The more JAMB blocks one examination malpractice loophole, the more other ingenious methods rear their ugly head. Candidates, their parents, CBT centres, admissions contractors, unscrupulous JAMB staff, the institutions of higher learning themselves were severally indicted by Oloyede. The good news, however, is that JAMB’s robust CAPS admissions system and cutting edge technology remain a hard nut to crack for fraudsters. And whenever any infraction is brought to Oloyede’s notice, he ensures that justice is done, and promptly too, regardless of whose ox is gored.

To avoid writing post-UTME, candidates now travel abroad days or weeks before the examination date to write the exam. To stem the tide, the new regulation stipulates that such candidates must have been in the foreign country for at least six months before the date of the examination. A growing number of candidates who fail to turn up for exams now claim they were kidnapped! Oloyede would mention the infractions and the culprits, even when they are heads of institutions, but on one occasion he sought the indulgence of everyone “to keep our secrets, secret!” But, usually, penalties imposed on infractions would be disclosed. Illegal admissions by the institutions, admission of underage candidates, selective uploading of post-UTME results to favour some at the expense of more qualified candidates were some of the infractions that Oloyede frowned at.

With many candidates shunning Education and Agriculture courses while running after the limited vacancies available in Medicine, Law, Pharmacy, Engineering, Accountancy, etc, Oloyede advocated that scholarships be used to entice candidates into those “endangered” courses or else, we shall continue to encounter problems in our admissions process, the Students’ Loan recently introduced by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, laudable as it is, notwithstanding.

The JAMB boss corrected the erroneous impression that there is anything called “cut-off” mark but “minimum tolerable score”; which means that no one with scores below it will be admitted. It does not mean that everyone with that score and above will be admitted. Again, the course intended and the carrying capacity of the institution concerned will come into play. The total scores of a candidate include WAEC score, JAMB score and post-UTME score, where applicable. This year’s “minimum tolerable score” for the universities was set at 140 and 100 for polytechnics, colleges of education, etc. No candidate with less than two points will be taken for Direct Entry admission into the universities.

The term used to describe the “disabled” keeps evolving; they are no longer referred to as “disabled” or “physically-challenged” but are now to be known and called “differently-abled” persons. In his characteristic candour, Oloyede had informed that everyone should give "differently-abled" persons some respect because every able-bodied person is a potential member of the group of differently-abled persons; to which someone seated close to me snapped her fingers over her head and said, “God forbid!”