Tertiary Education: JAMB Announces Fate Of Underage Candidates

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board has eventually decided the fate of the much publicised 85 underage candidates to its examination.

The 85 who are seeking admission into tertiary institutions of learning in the country completed what the board describes as multi-stage screening exercise.

is followed their successful completion of a rigorous screening of the candiates.

A statement issued today by JAMB’s Head of Media, Dr Fabian Benjamin, JAMB said the 85 underage candidates, all younger than 16 years as of September 2025, have been found qualified.

“After meticulous evaluation, 85 candidates who are adjudged to be qualified have been duly notified to proceed to their respective institutions to complete the admission process and print their individual JAMB admission letters.

“This policy of exceptional admission is consistent with global best practices, where such cases are treated as rare exceptions rather than the norm,” the statement read.

Providing a breakdown, JAMB said 41,027 candidates had sought admission under the special category out of the 2,031,133 applicants in the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME),

“Under this special category, 599 scored the 80% threshold in the UTME.

“These 599 were subjected to further scrutiny of school certificate and PUTME screening, which led to the emergence of 182 candidates (178+4).

“After due verification, interviews, and screening, 85 candidates were found to have met the criteria and have consequently been cleared for admission,” the Board added.

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“Any of the 182 finalist-candidates who, with a valid reason, missed the final interview, is advised to submit a formal request through the JAMB Support Ticketing System- https://support.jamb.gov.ng under the newly created category titled ‘2025 Underage Complaint.’

“Such complaints will be reviewed individually, and decisions will be made strictly on their own merits. This window is exclusively for only the 182 finalists who might, for one reason or the other missed the final interview.”

“Candidates who score 320 and above in UTME but failed to upload O-Level results and were subsequently disqualified from proceeding are now given a chance to upload within two (2) days (I.e. not later than Wednesday, 29th October, 2025) and notify the Board of such through the ticketing platform.”