JAMB screens 176 brilliant underage candidates in 2025 UTME as lawmakers hail exercise
The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has screened 176 exceptional underage candidates who scored high marks in the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).
The special screening, held simultaneously in Abuja, Owerri, and Lagos, was aimed at assessing the suitability of outstanding candidates below the age of 16 for admission into tertiary institutions for the 2025/2026 academic session.
Chairman of the Abuja Centre, Prof. Taoheed Adedoja, described the exercise as smooth and well-coordinated. He explained that candidates underwent a written examination before proceeding to face-to-face interviews.
“They did the first paper which took about 20 minutes, and after marking, they proceeded to the second and third sessions, followed by an interactive interview,” Adedoja said.
The former Minister of Sports disclosed that 22 candidates participated in Abuja, while a total of 176 candidates were screened nationwide. He noted that the JAMB Registrar, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, would announce the results at a later date.
Chairman of the Senate Committee on Tertiary Institutions and TETFund, Senator Mohammed Muntari Dandutse, who monitored the exercise, commended JAMB for offering a fair platform for gifted underage candidates.
“Now they are giving leverage to the underage so that they can go to the universities based on ability. It is important to test their maturity and focus because taking an unprepared underage candidate to university would be unwise,” he said.
Dandutse reaffirmed the National Assembly’s support for President Bola Tinubu’s education policies and praised JAMB’s consistency and transparency.
Similarly, Chairman of the House Committee on Basic Examination Bodies, Hon. Oboku Oforji, lauded the candidates’ performances, noting that their brilliance reflects Nigeria’s competitiveness in education across Africa.
“For underage candidates to perform exceptionally well shows how far we have come in education. We are proud of JAMB and urge them to sustain the momentum,” Oforji stated.
At the Owerri Centre, 38 out of 43 shortlisted underage candidates participated in the screening. The Chairman, Prof. Paulinus Okwelle, who is also the Executive Secretary of the National Commission for Colleges of Education (NCCE), commended the participants for their discipline and assured that the process followed JAMB’s guidelines strictly.
The candidates screened at the Owerri Centre were drawn from the South-South and South-East zones.
Although Nigeria’s official university admission age is 18, the National Policy allows entry from 16. Out of 41,027 applicants who sought consideration under the exceptional underage category, only 599 scored 80 percent and above in the UTME. After further verification of their O-Level and Post-UTME results, only 176 qualified for final screening.
The screening panels comprised experts from the Federal Ministry of Education, National Universities Commission (NUC), vice chancellors, and representatives of gifted schools.