More than 11,553 minors have enrolled for the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), says the Registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Ishaq Oloyede.
During an examination of authorised computer-based testing facilities in Lagos on Friday, Oloyede made the statement. He also described a spike in registration that has already seen 782,027 applicants sign up in the last ten days.
Oloyede said: “Now, we have registered 782,027, and 11,553 of them are underage. So, you can see that as we are registering, the system is reporting from all over the country. Out of the expected two million candidates, we’re not yet at the 14th day.
“Monday will mark our 14th day. So, in two weeks, we would have completed about half of our registration process, and by that time, we expect to have over one million candidates registered. So far, everything has been smooth.”
He pointed out that out of the 18,813 candidates who registered that morning, 443 were underage on Friday alone.
He claims that peer pressure is the reason why some parents register their children.
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“Today alone, we have 443 underage candidates, and out of the 18,813 registered this morning, 443 are underage. This year, we’ve introduced a system that allows us to identify and track underage candidates.
“This will help us understand their issues and even identify those who might be genuinely gifted but still underage,” he added.
