FG to implement 18-year age limit for WASSCE, NECO

The federal government has announced its determination to revive the policy that bars individuals under the age of 18 from taking part in the National Examinations Council and West African Examinations Council exams.

The Minister of Education, Prof. Tahir Mamman, disclosed this while featuring on Channels Television’s ‘Sunday Politics’ programme on Sunday night.

He said the federal government has directed WAEC, which conducts the West African Senior School Certificate Examination and NECO, which oversees the Senior School Certificate Examination to enforce the 18-year age requirement for candidates wishing to take these exams, stressing that it was not a new policy.

He added that the age limit for candidates sitting for the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination, administered by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), remains set at 18 years.

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He said, “For the avoidance of doubt, this is not a new policy; this is a policy that has been there for a long time.

“So, we are not coming up with a new policy contrary to what some people are saying; we are just simply reminding people of what is existing. In any case, NECO and WAEC, henceforth will not be allowing underage children to write their examinations. In other words, if somebody has not spent the requisite number of years in that particular level of study, WAEC and NECO will not allow them to write the examination.”

On his earlier disclosure of the decision to cancel over 22,500 fake degree certificates Nigerians obtained from Togo and Benin Republic, he said only eight universities have been accredited to award degrees to Nigerians in the two countries.

The minister said the federal government only recognised three institutions in Togo and five in Benin Republic while identifying others as illegal institutions. 

The approved Togolese institutions are Universite De Lome, Universite De Kara and Catholic University of West Africa. 

In Benin Republic, the approved universities are: Universite D’abomey-Calavi; Universite De Parakou; Universite Nationale Des Sciences, Technologis Ingenierie Et Mathematiques; Universite Nationale D’ Agriculture and Universite Africaine De Devlopment Cooperatif.