Federal Government ban underage children in common entrance examinations

The ban recently announced by the Federal Government on underage children from participating in the National Common Entrance Examination conducted by the National Examination Council (NECO) for admission into unity colleges nationwide is reasonably well-intended. It is important to protect children from psychological damage that may ensue when they are unduly rushed through schools by over-ambitious parents.

However, the debate thus generated by the government’s announcement is also a pointer that the official position may not be sacrosanct; and the desirable position probably lies between the two extremes. There is, therefore, a need for caution to ensure that unusually brilliant children, who are also mature, are not unnecessarily subjected to the same slow rigour with their colleagues who are not equally endowed. The challenge is for the government to device an adequate means of identifying students who can skip a class without jeopardising their educational career or progression.

The issue of entry age into secondary schools’ pupils skipping classes and Senior Secondary School (SSS) 1 and 2 students taking external examinations is not new, and has at various times generated debates among parents, guardians and experts. At present, stakeholders are divided in their opinions as they argue for and against these developments. While some parents and experts argue that education is about maturity, and any child, who is mature and can cope, should be allowed to jump classes; others argue that parents should exercise restraint and not be too much in a hurry to push their wards out of school at a young age because such children may not be psychologically and emotionally balanced to face the rigours of higher classes.

In banning underage children from participating in the National Common Entrance Examination conducted by the National Examination Council (NECO) for admission into unity colleges, the Federal Government noted that to get into secondary school, a candidate should be at least 12 years; and that a pupil could be 11-plus during the examination and by September, such a person would have attained the age of 12 years.

According to the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Education, David Adejo, “Education is not about passing exams. Education is teaching, learning and character formation.” He also argued that “Education is designed in such a way that at any particular stage in life, there are messages your brain can understand and put to use.”

Before now, precisely in 2021, the Lagos State government had pegged the entry age for prospective pupils into any private or public secondary school at 12 years to check the registration of under-aged children. Similarly, a 2021 newspaper report stated that the Federal Government barred students in senior secondary school 1 and 2 from sitting for external examinations, including West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE), National Examination Council (NECO) and National Business and Technical Examination (NBTE).

Children develop at different rates, while some are early developers, others are late developers. These are individual differences and should be factored into policies. While the practice of automatic promotion and skipping classes may contribute to low interest, low effort, and poor attendance for weak students, who could have attended classes regularly and demonstrated better learning outcomes. It may not be the same for whiz kids, who are unusually intelligent and very clever. There is no one cap that fits it all! As such, whiz kids, who are performing excellently, and who are tested to be sufficiently mature should be encouraged to take a common entrance examination without any age barrier and be admitted into Junior Secondary School (JSS) 1.

Some private schools in Lagos reportedly stop issuing testimonials to smart children, who left primary five for JSS1, even before the 2021 that Lagos State government pegged the entry age for prospective pupils into any private or public secondary school at 12 years. This should not be, because every child should be issued a document stating that the child attended a particular school for a period of time, the classes and the activities the child participated in. The Lagos State government should look into this to avoid any future imbroglio.

For now, Nigeria should be more concerned about the critical issue of out of school children and providing universal basic education to all Nigerian children in line with Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4) designed to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.

The Nigerian government should realise that in 2030, the country will not be assessed by placing a ban on underage children from participating in common entrance exams; but rather on the number of girls and boys who completed free, equitable and quality primary and secondary education; girls and boys who have access to quality early childhood development, care and pre-primary education in readiness for primary education; and women and men with equal access to affordable and quality technical, vocational and tertiary education, including university.

Countries will also be judged by other factors such as substantial increase in the number of youth and adults who have relevant skills, including technical and vocational skills, for employment, decent jobs and entrepreneurship; elimination of gender disparities in education and ensuring equal access to all levels of education and vocational training for the vulnerable, including persons with disabilities, indigent peoples and children in vulnerable situations.
Also, ensuring that all youth and a substantial proportion of adults, both men and women, achieve literacy and numeracy; ensuring that all learners acquire the knowledge and skills needed to promote sustainable development, and upgrading education facilities that are child, disability and gender sensitive. Therefore, achieving SDG-4 should be the focus of the Federal Ministry of Education not ‘stopping high flying’ children.

Nevertheless, the mentality of many parents to rush their kids through school for personal aggrandizement is condemnable; as this is fraught with attendant negative effects on the child in the short and long terms, such as low interest to attend classes and poor learning, which eventually leads to dropping out of school. But exceptional children commonly referred to as whiz kids should not be made static or put on ‘reverse gear.’ Rather, they should be properly identified and guided professionally to success at an early age.
Therefore, children who are geniuses should be encouraged and allowed to fast track their education, because if the country continues in the trajectory of dishing out our linear policies against its ‘smart kids’, the developed countries will grab them and encourage them with scholarships and other incentives.

Also, some parents may resort to sending their children abroad for secondary education and many are already doing so for tertiary education. The effect is that Nigeria will continue to lose the brightest brains. Government should, therefore, seek to properly sift the wheat from the chaff on skipping classes for young students.