Afe Babalola Vows to Continue Admitting Students Below Age 18 Despite FG Policy

The founder, Afe Babalola University Ado-Ekiti, Aare Afe Babalola has said the university would still go ahead to admit students below age 18 despite a new federal government policy barring younger students from gaining admission into various universities in Nigeria. Speaking to newsmen on Thursday, August 29, in Ado-Ekiti, the capital of Ekiti State, Babalola expressed his strong opposition to the federal government’s directive and described the latter as unacceptable and retrogressive.

The elder statesman attacked the policy, which he said would deny brilliant and gifted young students the opportunity of going further with their education at a time when such should have been most essential for their lives. He emphasized that the new policy is harmful to the educational progress of young stars who are willing to take the challenges of higher education earlier than their peers. Babalola pointed out that many youngsters have manifested special academic prowess and must not be inhibited by an age barrier imposed on them by the government.

Babalola posited that the decision-making process on admission should be left to the autonomy of the university. He explained that universities should have discretion over the admission of students against admission determinants rather than being hampered by the government through age restrictions on who can be admitted. Using an analogy of how education is conducted in the West, Babalola stressed that many universities around the world today admit applicants who qualify academically for a course, irrespective of age.

“You don’t just go out as a minister of education to direct universities against the university’s autonomy as to who to admit or who not to admit. It is the duty of the university to decide to exercise their discretion, and you can’t take that discretion from them,” Babalola stated. He firmly believes that this order of the federal government unduly compromises university autonomy and self-governance in the interests of students’ and academic programs’ best interests.

For instance, Babalola gave examples from ABUAD itself, where students as young as 15 have gained admission and gone on to graduate with First Class honours by the age of 19. Using such success stories, he was trying to show that age should not be a limiting factor in university admissions. “To me, the issue of age is a matter of discretion for the university and let me say that we have been doing it here. We have students who came to ABUAD at 15 and graduated with First Class at the age of 19 and we will continue to do it,” he said.

Babalola has opened the door to debate on what the government should play in university admissions and how free a university should be in making independent decisions or choices. His argument is that education policy should be such as would encourage and develop youthful talents without imposing on them such unwarranted restrictions capable of lesioning their academic and professional growth.

What this means is that Afe Babalola University has set a very important precedent in the ongoing debate on university autonomy and rights of young students to pursue higher education based on capabilities rather than age. With this development, how the remaining universities and other education stakeholders would respond to the challenge, and whether the federal government would look back at its stand in the face of opposition by such a foremost academic giant as Aare Afe Babalola, remains to be seen.