The Federal Government has cleared 108 exceptionally gifted candidates under the age of 16 for immediate university admission consideration, providing a targeted waiver to the contentious tertiary age benchmark.
The policy intervention was disclosed in Abuja by the Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa, while receiving top-performing candidates alongside the leadership of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB). The resolution follows months of nationwide debate sparked by the previous administration’s pronouncement restricting university entry strictly to candidates aged 18 and above, an order that drew sharp criticism from parents, educators, and civil society groups over its impact on accelerated learners.
Clarifying the criteria, Dr Alausa explained that the clearance does not represent an unvetted policy reversal, but a rigorous, merit-based concession designed to protect academic prodigies. Of the approximately 39,000 candidates below the minimum admission age of 16 who sat the 2026 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), only 391 attained scores of 320 and above out of 400.
Following secondary evaluations requiring at least an 80 per cent benchmark in post-UTME screening and senior school certificate (O’Level) results, only 108 candidates – representing roughly 0.005 per cent of all test-takers – scaled the threshold.
The minister affirmed that compelling such exceptional candidates to remain out of school for two to three years would impair their intellectual momentum.
JAMB has been instructed to release the profiles of the 108 candidates to their chosen tertiary institutions, including the University of Lagos (UNILAG), University of Ibadan (UI), and Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), to enable admission processing subject to meeting institutional departmental requirements. University senates have further been advised to implement pastoral and academic mentorship structures to support the welfare of the young scholars on campus.
