The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has announced that candidates under the age of sixteen can now take a mock Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).
JAMB Registrar Prof. Ishaq Oloyede clarified that the mock UTME is intended for minors looking to assess their skills rather than for admission to a university.
At a meeting with media executives in Lagos on Sunday, Oloyede announced that the UTME this year will take place on March 8, 2025.
“We will begin selling forms on January 31 and run them through March 5. On February 23, there will be a practice test, and on March 8, there will be the UTME,” the JAMB Registrar said.
Oloyede stated that JAMB would only be implementing a trial-testing exam mock this year. He clarified that the mock trial test is intended for people under the age of sixteen who would not be eligible for admission to universities, polytechnics, or educational institutions.
According to the JAMB Registrar, candidates must be 16 years old by September 30 to be eligible to take the UTME and get admission to universities, polytechnics, or institutions of education.
He said that applicants who want to try CBT but do not want to be admitted for 2025 could sign up for trial testing alone.
He mentioned that e-PIN selling and the sale of Direct Entry application materials would start on March 10 and April 7, respectively.
Oloyede clarified that the following fees would apply: N8,200 for UTME with mock, N7,200 for UTME just (without mock), N5,700 for direct entrance candidates, and N7,200 for trial-testing mock only (for testing or underage candidates).
The board would enforce the 16-year-old age limit for this year’s UTME registration according to the JAMB registrar, who also mentioned that only talented applicants under the age of 15 would be permitted to register.
He went on to say that an applicant must receive at least 280 UTME points and excel in the senior secondary certificate and post-UTME exams to be eligible for admission as an underage.
“The admission policy conference decided that 16 years would be the minimal requirement for entrance in 2024. “We were taken to court to reverse the extension to 16 years, even though JAMB tried to help by extending the date to accommodate more candidates,” he stated.
Last year, Prof. Tahir Mamman, the former minister of education, declared that the country’s tertiary institutions would only admit applicants who were at least eighteen years old.
Nigerians were so outraged by the declaration that the Nigerian government was compelled to change its mind.
In November 2024, Dr. Tunji Alausa, Mamman’s successor, suspended the nation’s tertiary institutions’ 18-year admittance requirement.
Oloyede revealed that, in contrast to the 747 approved last year, 870 computer-based test centres had been reviewed and provisionally listed for the 2025 UTME.
