Professor Ishiaq Olanrewaju Oloyede, Executive Secretary of the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB), has warned parents against falsifying their children’s age to secure university admission, stating that this act pushes children into corruption and crime.
He made this statement on the sidelines of the presentation of the Academic and Research Excellence Award to Professor Yusuf Olaolu Ali (SAN) at Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Osun State.
Oloyede commended the university for encouraging mentorship and academic excellence, saying that for universities to live up to their expectations as ivory towers, they must encourage and reward excellence in addition to promoting scholarship and academic research.
He described the choice of the awardee as the “right choice” and praised the university’s management for celebrating excellence and promoting scholarship.
He said:”My take home from this event is to demonstrate that universities have the potential for development and part of the development is to recognize the tools for development and to encourage development.
“The Obafemi Awolowo University has identified brilliance and it is customary to universities all over the world that brilliant students are tagged university scholars and they are encouraged to aspire to replace the current academics.
“They are planning for the future and by recognizing Yusuf Olaolu Ali. They are encouraging mentors so that they can mentor others and those other people they are mentoring can also mentor others. It’s a way of increasing our capacity to develop those who will develop the nation.”
On the age limit conversation, the JAMB Registrar said,”This year, the minimum age is 16, not 18.
How many brilliant students do you have at the end of the day? People are cutting corners instead of us to address the root of our problem, we’re making excuses.”
He added that “Primary school starts from age 6 and undergo 12 years of training before going to university. It’s not a new policy.
Fortunately,the honourable minister has agreed that this year it’ll be 16. We should get our acts right and we should agree that abnormality is becoming normal.
“How can you say 50% of the class are extra brilliant? What are we seeing at the end of the day? People are cutting corners and are acting against the interest of the students. Why do you want to prematurely produce a person that is not ready biologically?”he queried.
” I think it’s good that for this year it’s 16 years and anybody who is less than 16 and is going to university will not be admitted even though before now, some universities like UNILAG don’t give students less than age 16 admission.
“We’re just emphasizing the old policy and not creating a new one so there’s no need to fake your age to gain admission to the university because you are introducing this child to the world of corruption and crime.
“We’re not talking about educational attainment but we’re talking about pushing students beyond their biological age. You’re putting them through unnecessary stress because such a child is not mentally prepared for the curriculum,”he said.
