Federal Government has banned students under the age of eleven years from participating in the National Common Entrance Examination for admission into the Unity Schools across the country.
The government has therefore directed the National Examination Council (NECO) to put stringent measures in place to prevent underage persons from registering for the examination and also make birth certificate a compulsory requirement for registering for the examination.
According to the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Education, Mr David Andrew Adejo, who gave this directive on Saturday in Abuja, students who are less than eleven years old are not allowed to write the examination. He also said Airforce Schools, among others, do not accept candidates less than twelve years for admission into their schools.
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Adejo noted that to get into secondary schools, a candidate should be at least 12 years, adding that one could be eleven plus during the examination and by September, such a person would have attained the age of 12 years.
The Permanent Secretary lamented the rate at which underage pupils enter for the common entrance examination, noting that parents who push their wards to circumvent process in order for them to have early education are major cause of this problem.
His words: “This year, I have advice for parents and I beg you, take this advice to any single home you know. We are killing our children by allowing underage children to write the Common Entrance Examination.
“I saw children that I know that are not up to 10, and three of them accepted that they are nine years old. We are doing many things; one, we are teaching the children the wrong values. Education is not about passing exams. Education is teaching, learning and character formation
“I beg the parents, let these children do the exams when they should. We don’t get value by pushing our children too far. Most of the time if a child starts too early, he or she will have problems later in life.
“Education is designed in such a way that at any particular stage in life, there are messages your brain can take and understand and be able to use. We are moving from education that is reliant on reading textbooks and passing exams.
“We are getting to a stage where education is what can you use your knowledge to do for society. You put a small child to go through all the rigours, and by the time he finishes secondary, getting to University becomes a problem. I had that experience with a friend. To date that friend did not get into a University, simply because he was put into school earlier than the age that he was supposed to be put into school.
“Let our children get to the appropriate age before writing this exam and we are going to make sure NECO put in place appropriate checks. We didn’t want to get to where we will say bring birth certificate but that is the stage we are going to now. In registering also upload the child’s birth certificate, so that at our own end, we are able to cut some of these things,” Adejo said.
It is reported that a total of 72,821 candidates sat for this year’s national common entrance examination nationwide for admission into 110 Federal Government Colleges on Saturday.