JUST IN: JAMB SETS DATE FOR SCREENING OUTSTANDING UNDERAGE UTME CANDIDATES
The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has scheduled September 22–26, 2025 for the special screening of over 500 candidates below the age of 16 who excelled in the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).
The exercise will be conducted simultaneously in Lagos, Abuja, and Owerri by a technical committee tasked with evaluating the readiness of these young candidates for tertiary education.
Lagos: 397 candidates
Owerri: 136 candidates
Abuja: 66 candidates
JAMB Registrar, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, explained that the aim is to identify only the most exceptional and well-prepared students, noting that similar initiatives exist in other countries. Out of 41,027 underage UTME candidates this year, more than 40,000 failed to meet the initial shortlisting criteria.
Of the 1.95 million UTME candidates in 2025, 599 scored above 300 but did not meet the 16-year minimum age requirement set by the Ministry of Education. To qualify for consideration, underage candidates must score at least 320 in UTME, 80% in post-UTME, and 80% in WAEC or NECO (one sitting).
Meanwhile, four universities — Air Force Institute of Technology, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, University of Jos, and Osun State University — have declared they will not admit underage students under any circumstances.
