The Registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, has warned that strict penalties will be enforced for underage candidates in the ongoing 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) registration.
Speaking to reporters last Friday while monitoring the registration process at various centers in Lagos, Oloyede revealed that out of the 780,202 candidates registered so far, 11,512 are underage.
He noted that while JAMB had initially allowed exceptionally brilliant candidates below 16 years to register, the privilege is now being abused.
Here are six things underage pupils can do while waiting to gain varsity admission:
1. Underage students, rather than remaining idle, can pursue a-two year ‘A levels’ study in a particular course that is related to their aspired course of study in the university. This will help them to be better prepared for life in the tertiary institutions.
2. They can take a tech course while waiting to get to an admissible age. They can apply and earn an online tech certificate from the following online schools: ALX, Techvinson Academy, KemonAI, Udemy, RITA Africa, SheCodes, Cousera and GreatLearning.
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3. Students can embark on skill acquisition in a vocational training programme like barbing, hair dressing, computer literacy and technological programmes to mention but few.
From the skills required above, the students stand the chance and opportunities of generating the higher institutions of their choice. This will help alleviate too much dependence on their parents for their upkeep allowance.
4. They may get registered in some professional courses that relate to their future course of study. For instance, students who aspired to study Accounting in the higher institutions of learning but are not up to the stipulated age of 18 years, can get registered for preliminaries of ICAN and funny enough, such student would have gotten some ICAN professional qualifications before getting admitted into the university or higher institution of learning. So also, students aspiring for degrees in Nursing can get hooked-up in the Auxiliary Nursing programmes, among others.
5. Underage students can embark on pre-degree programmes at the universities or higher institutions of their choice. By the pre-degree programmes, this will give such students ample opportunities to be properly ready for the degree programme proper, at successful completion of the pre-degree programmes.
6. Students may also register at JAMB tutorial centres, where they will receive intensive coaching on JAMB and this will eventually enhance them to make better grades in JAMB in future.
