The Senate has revealed its position on the minimum age for qualification for tertiary education admission.
The latest debate on the age to gain admission was sparked by the Minister of Education, Prof. Tahir Mamman, last week.
Mamman had said that no one should gain admission into higher institutions earlier than age 18.
He said this as a result of the fallout of his inspection of the Universal Tertiary Matriculation Examination conducted by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board for admission into the country’s universities, polytechnics and colleges of education.
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The Minister, who was on an inspection of the Computer Based Test centres used for the UTME between April 19 and 29, 2024, said some of those spotted were too young to be writing the examination.
He said going by the country’s standard of the 6-3-3-4 curriculum, a child should only qualify for university admission at 18.
But reacting to the position of Mamman on Thursday, the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Adeyemi Adaramodu, said nothing has changed from the position of 16 years to qualify for admission.
Adaramodu said the position canvassed by the Minister was not a law.
He said: “Comments on the minimum age requirement for admission is not a law.
“So, it is just an opinion.
“It’s not a law.
“Now that the Senate has resumed, whoever wants to bring that one out to make it a law, will now bring it and then the procedures will take place.
“You can bring whatever to the floor in the form of a bill.
“When you bring it, there’s going to be a public hearing.
“All the stakeholders will sit down and talk about it.
“The parents, teachers, legislators, civil society organisations, even foreign organisations.
“We will sit down and we will talk.
“Even if they say that the minimum age should be 30 or 12, we will all discuss it at an open forum.
“So it’s still a comment, which cannot be taken to be the law.”
Adaramodu said students who wrote the UTME in 2024 cannot be made to observe the minimum qualification age of 18 as canvassed by Mamman.
He said: “There is nothing like that.
“When the prospective student bought their forms, there were no such conditions.
“So when you have bought your forms under one condition, that condition cannot be initiated along the line until the current set of candidates have been successfully attended to.
“When the next engagement is to take place, then if it is brought even as an executive bill or personal or private bill or the public brings it as a bill, then the National Assembly will now sit down and then allow it to go to the crucible of lawmaking.
“This is a country.
“This is Nigeria.
“So all of us will sit down and deliberate.
“So, so far it is just a mere comment, it’s just an opinion.
“It is not law yet.
“So once something is not law, then there’s the level of jaw-jaw that we can do.
“It’s not.”