Government should revise timeline of exam age ban, parents say

Thousands of candidates currently in Senior Secondary School 3 in Nigeria may not be able to sit for the secondary exit exams in 2025 because they will not yet be 18 years old. This could shatter the plans of students who want to study at foreign universities, because these exams are often a prerequisite for admission.

Nigeria’s federal government has prohibited learners younger than 18 from taking part in the National Examinations Council (NECO) and West African Examinations Council (WAEC) exams. The decision comes in the wake of an earlier directive in 2024 banning learners below 18 years old from being admitted to universities and other higher education institutions.

The country’s Minister of Education, Professor Tahir Mamman, disclosed this on the Channels Television programme Sunday Politics recently.

Mamman explained that the federal government has directed the WAEC, which conducts the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE), and NECO, which oversees the Senior School Certificate Examination, or SSCE, to enforce the 18-year age requirement for candidates wishing to take these exams.

WASSCE is a type of standardised test taken in West Africa, administered by the WAEC. Students who pass the exam receive a certificate confirming their graduation from secondary education, which they use to apply for admission to tertiary institutions, even outside Nigeria.

Speaking concerning the new directive, Mamman said: “[The limit] is 18 [years old]. For the avoidance of doubt, this is not a new policy; this is a policy that has been there for a long time.”

Time frame unrealistic

Alhaji Haruna Danjuma, the president of the National Parent Teacher Association of Nigeria, told University World News that, although the policy was not new, the time frame should be changed.

“Before you are register for primary school, you must have reached the age of six years. You spend six years in primary school, Nigeria’s policy allows six years in secondary school, Junior Secondary School (JSS) 1-3, and Senior Secondary School (SSS) 1-3 will bring you to 18 years. But, nowadays, we see a lot of students not reaching the maturity age [before they finish school], which is now the practice in our schools.

“Under normal circumstances, it is something that must be adjusted. But the government comes up with a policy forgetting where we are and where we are going. They should give a time frame maybe from the next two years, with education bodies coming together to find a solution.”

He also urged the minister to allow underage students currently in the system to sit the exam. “Government should have a second look at the issue and, at the very least, save those children,” he said.

Government can make any policy

When University World News contacted the WAEC concerning the age limit, Head of Public Relations Moyosore Adesina declined to comment on the unfolding situation.

Dr Amos Dangut, the head of the WAEC’s national office, said that education in Nigeria is regulated by the government, which holds the right to enforce any policy it deems fit, the newspaper PUNCH reported. “If the government is regulating education, it is within their purview to do so. We at WAEC do not regulate or keep records of candidates’ ages, as these details are submitted to us by the schools,” he was quoted as saying.

The other exam body in the country has the same stance. Azeez Sani, the head of the information and public relations division of the National Education Council, organisers of the NECO exam, told University World News that the age limit of 18 years is a federal government policy. “There is nothing the agency can do about it. Our task is to implement it; we are a federal government agency and execute government policies,” Sani said.

The National President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Professor Emmanuel Osodeke, said that the ASUU has not yet discussed the matter, but stated on a personal note that children should follow the standard academic progression: six years in primary school, six years in secondary school, and then move on to university at the age of 18.

Timeline should be changed

From 2019-21, according to the WAEC Results Statistics, 1.5 million students wrote the WAEC exam annually. In 2024, the WAEC said that about 1.8 million candidates were sitting for the examination in Nigeria. However, there is no publicly available data on the ages of candidates. A 2019 investigative report by the Daily Trust revealed that thousands of primary school pupils in Nigeria tend to skip either Primary 6 or Primary 5 classes and proceed to Secondary School.

Other education experts seem to agree that the timeline of the new directive is not sufficient to address the discrepancy of students who would be left without any education for at least two years due to their new underage status.

Taiwo Akinlami, a legal practitioner and founder of the Safe for Children Society, called the directive an anomaly. “It does not make sense. In trying to solve one problem, they are creating another problem.”

While dissuading the menace of underage children in universities, Akinlami, however, reproved the government’s blanket policy. He suggested that the government revise the timeline.

“I am not in agreement with the policy. It is haphazard. I agree that we should solve the problem of underage students, but not by a haphazard policy. The government can say in the next five years, but this kind of careless pronouncement shows a lack of thinking,” Akinlami said.