A total of 41,027 underage candidates have registered for the 2025 UTME. These candidates are part of the 2.03 million people who signed up for the exam. This information is from the JAMB registration dashboard.
Underage candidates are those who are younger than 16 years old. They make up a large portion of the total registrations. As of Monday, 62 cases of exam malpractice have been reported. This was shared on JAMB’s official website.
The Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, recently brought back the rule that students must be at least 16 years old to enter Nigerian universities. He said students under 16 cannot be admitted. However, students with very high scores might be considered.
JAMB explained that underage candidates could still be admitted if they score at least 80% in the UTME. Since the UTME is marked out of 400, this means they must score at least 320 marks.
This new rule replaces the previous one that set the minimum age at 18. That rule was made by the former Education Minister, Prof. Tahir Mamman. Many people in the education sector support the return to the 16-year age rule.
At a recent meeting, JAMB Registrar, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, said the age rule is 16 years. But he added that younger students may be accepted if they meet very strict conditions.
The Education Minister also shared more news. By November 2025, WAEC and NECO will begin using Computer-Based Testing (CBT) for their objective questions. By May/June 2026, both the objective and essay parts of their exams will be fully CBT. This change is meant to reduce cheating in exams.