The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has expressed concern over an increase in the number of falsified and upwardly adjusted age declarations on National Identification Number (NIN) slips being submitted by candidates. JAMB noted that this trend of underage candidates falsifying their age to gain university admission is both dangerous and unnecessary.
JAMB has now mandated that only candidates who will be at least sixteen years old at the time of admission will be considered eligible for university entry. This directive was issued by the Chairman of the 2024 tertiary admission policy meeting and Minister of Education, Prof. Tahir Mamman.
In a statement by the board’s spokesperson, Fabian Benjamin, it was highlighted that the extant 6-3-3-4 education policy will be enforced only from the 2025 academic session. The statement partly read, “This position is informed by the discovery of widespread and unwholesome practices 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.”
JAMB’s stringent measures aim to curb these practices and ensure that only eligible candidates gain admission into tertiary institutions.
