By Adedotun Ajayi

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They are all smart. Very smart. Smart way beyond their lives. some of them are inventors, some, like Galois, solved difficult Mathematics problems, some are brilliant artists, performers, or entrepreneurs; and some have encyclopedic knowledge. They are genius. Jack Andraka, 16, Jacob Barnett, 14, Marian Bechtel, 18, Shinee Bose, 18, Phoebe Cai, 15, Marko Calasan, 14, all got admissions to the university at tender age and today are references in the world. But in Nigeria, our lawmakers have come out with a law to deny genius from being admitted to the university at a tender age.
Recently, the Senate commenced the process of amending the Establishment Act of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), with particular interest on age of candidates participating in Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).
The lawmakers suggested in the new amendment that 18 years should be set as age limit for any candidate that will henceforth participate in UTME as against the current practice where 14-year old candidates can participate in the exercise.
Vice Chairman, Senate Committee on Basic Education, Senator Akon Eyakenyi, disclosed the information last week when she led other Committee members on oversight visit to JAMB headquarters in Abuja.
She explained that the Committee had identified two major areas to be addressed in the proposed amendment for the examination body to function better.
Senator Eyakenyi said: “We have the responsibility of making laws and legislation. We have identified two major areas that we need to look into in the process of amending the act establishing JAMB. That’s the area of support we will give.”
But the proposed amendment if allowed to scale through will disallow student like Ekene Franklin Ezuelana, 14years old Senior Secondary School Three (SS3) pupil of Meiran Community Secondary School, Lagos who scored 347 in JAMB test – the highest in the country. His lowest score in the four subjects he took was 78 in English Language. He scored 91 in Mathematics, 86 in Physics and 92 in Chemistry.
With such feat, Ekene should ordinarily not have a problem gaining admission into his school of first choice, University of Lagos (UNILAG). But his age is a snag to his being admitted to a university. At 14, he is below the proposed 18 years – the new proposed age for university admission.
Remember also 14-year-old Ebbah Wyse who represented Nigeria in the 2016 African Mathematics Olympiad in Pretoria and won gold! He of course had to qualify at the national level before he went on to the inter-country stage. He led the Nigerian Olympiads with a 90% score.
Speaking on this issue, Education Consultant Mrs. Dideolu Adekogbe said that children should spend the right number of years in school as stipulated by the National Policy on Education.
Mrs. Adekogbe who runs the Bring Back Primary Six movement, which advocates that primary education should terminate in Primary Six instead of primary four or five as practised by many private schools, said 18 years was not too old for children to leave secondary school.
Her words: “The government standard should be upheld. What do we have in the national policy of education?
“Age six for Primary One and 18 years to be in the university is not late or too late.
“Life requires acquiring basic skills and maturity to handle situations, and spending required years and relating with age group in school prepares one beyond academics. Let us stick with standard, if you bend the rules, you will have more 14- years-old in the university as we already have. ”
Former President, Association for Formidable Educational Development (AFED), Mrs. Ifejola Dada, agrees with the age being pegged at 18 to allow for maturity of students before university.
“As for me, secondary school pupils should graduate at 18. Until we do the right thing, we will continue to produce cowards and dependent children. When children are skipping classes up to secondary school, graduating in university at age 16, this child is subject to lots of dangers. Cultists bullying them will subject them to surrendering themselves to their group for protection before they know. There is nothing wrong we do that does not have repercussions. The class they skipped will still tell on them as time goes on. My opinion in summary is that what is worth doing is worth doing well. If we want these children to go to school, let it be wholistic not haphazardly. Let us stop teaching for employment but let’s teach and empower them for better future,” said Mrs. Dada.
On the contrary, Ayodeji Leye, public speaker and educator, said “Most kids are very intelligent and bright academically, hence at 14 and 15 years they are done with WAEC. It is not their fault that they are academically sound. So you mean these type of brilliant teens should wait 3 or 4 good years before attempting JAMB?
“We see kids of 11 years in the western world as degree and masters holders and these same people in the Senate celebrate them, tell me if laws like these abound in such countries, would there have been feats like that.
“Why is this country slopping towards anachronism? What would be the benefits of pegging someone’s development? An under-18 could rear cow, but cannot write JAMB? Even when we have 18 year olds as College Graduates in the U.S.?
Julie Adeyemi, parent and businesswoman said, “18 is still okay, there is no need to rush education. Take your time, discover yourself and what you really want to do career-wise before jumping into the university. On the other hand, as the senate is moving for that, they should also move to put an end to age barriers when searching for a job. Banks and other big companies and firms only accept 26years old and below, this of course majorly favors those that went to school extremely early.