The Federal Government has banned underage children from participating in the National Common Entrance Examination for admission into Unity Schools across the country.
It also directed the National Examinations Council (NECO) to put strict measures in place to prevent underage persons from registering for the examination, including making birth certificates compulsory as a registration requirement.
The permanent secretary of the Federal Ministry of Education, Mr. David Andrew Adejo, gave the directive yesterday in Abuja while monitoring the conduct of the 2023 Common Entrance Examination into the 110 Federal Government Colleges across the federation.
He stated that 72,821 candidates sat for the examination nationwide.
Adejo noted that to get into secondary school, a candidate should be at least 12 years old, adding that one could be 11 plus during the examination, and by September, such a person would have attained the age of 12.
After monitoring the exercise at the Federal Government Girls College, Bwari, and Government Day Secondary School, Bwari, Abuja, he expressed unhappiness with the underage persons taking the examination.
He said allowing children less than eleven years old was unacceptable, adding that Air Force schools, among others, do not accept candidates less than 12 years old.
“This year, I have advice for parents, and I beg you to 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 is that we are teaching the children the wrong values. Education is not just about passing exams. Education is teaching, learning, and character formation.
“I beg parents, let these children do the exams when they should. We don’t get value from pushing your child 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, understand, and be able to use. We are moving away from education that is reliant on reading textbooks and passing exams.
“We are getting to a stage where education is what you can use your knowledge to do for society. If you put a small child through all the rigours, by the time he finishes secondary school, getting to university becomes a problem. I had that experience with a friend. To date, that friend has not gotten into a university, simply because he was put in school earlier than the age he was supposed to be put in.
“Let our children get to an appropriate age before writing this exam, and we are going to make sure NECO puts in place appropriate checks. We didn’t want to get to the point where we would say, “Bring a 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,” he said.
He said the number of girls who registered for the Common Entrance Examination this year was 38,000, far above the previous years.
The Registrar of NECO, Professor Dantani Wushishi, said the conduct of the examination was generally smooth and orderly, saying from the reports gotten from across the country, the examination went on hitch-free.