President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) Emmanuel Osodeke, has backed the federal government’s directive that admission to tertiary institutions in Nigeria should not be given to candidates who are less than 18 years.

Minister of Education, Tahir Mamman, gave the directive on Monday during a monitoring exercise of the ongoing 2024 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) in Bwari, Abuja.

Mamman said the minimum age of entry into the university is 18, but there have been cases of students who are 15, or 16 years going in for the entrance examination.

Parents should be encouraged not to push their wards too much. Mostly, it is the pressure of parents that is causing this,” the Minister said

We are going to look at this development because the candidates are too young to understand what the whole university education is all about.”

He stated that it is the period when children migrate from a controlled to an uncontrolled environment when they are in charge of their affairs.

He posited that if they are too young, they wont be able to manage properly which is part of what is being experienced in the universities currently.

Reacting to the directive, the ASUU President told PUNCH in an interview that they are in full support, describing it is as the right and correct thing.

The issue of age benchmark is not a new thing. Its just that regulators have not been doing their work,” Osodeke said.

In those days, you could not go to primary school if you were not six years old. Then you spend six years and finish at age 12; and then by the time you get to secondary school you spend six years and then you graduate by 18.”