Concerned parents in Ekiti State, Ogbomoso and Osogbo have appealed to the Federal Government to prevail on the Registrar of the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, and the Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa, to extend admission age to those who will be 16 years by the end of 2025/2026 academic session.

Speaking with newsmen on behalf of parents yesterday in Ado Ekiti, Prof. Atiba Adeniran Samuel said that though the group was not against the policy of a 16-year admission age limit, it shouldn’t start at the intermediate level.

Adeniran urged the government to start the implementation of the policy from the entry age to primary school.

He said: “We expect enforcement at the entry level. A child of four years who is prevented from being admitted into a primary school has no emotional attachment, unlike a teenager who has passed all the prerequisite examinations to be admitted into higher institutions.”

The ad hoc groups in Ogbomoso and Osogbo noted that allowing the law to come into effect at this point is operationally incorrect and ill-timed, arguing instead that it should be checked at the point of admission into primary schools.

They opined that at that time, the children are not emotionally alert, but that a child who had successfully navigated primary and secondary school education and was suddenly told he or she could not proceed to a university, even though the child had obtained the prerequisite conditions, would inflict the child with trauma.