UTME: JAMB Says Candidates Below 18 Years Exempted From “No Vaccination Card, No Entry” Policy

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), in a clarification, has said that examination candidates and visitors below the age of 18 years are not required to present Covid-19 vaccination cards before being granted access into JAMB examination halls and facilities.

The clarification follows the discovery that many underage candidates were making frantic efforts to get vaccinated with some even falsifying their age in order to get vaccinated just to have access to services at the Board’s facilities.
This disclosure is contained in a statement issued and signed on Tuesday by the head of JAMB’s media and protocol unit, Fabian Benjamin, who said those mandated to provide vaccination cards are persons covered under the NCDC Vaccination policy.
The statement from the JAMB’s Spokesman partly reads, “All candidates, clients, and other members of the public below the age of 18 years are not required to produce any vaccination card before being allowed access to our facilities. This category of persons is not covered by the NCDC vaccination policy.”
The examination body, however, said it would require evidence of being underage to allow any underage individual access to its facilities.
Recall that JAMB, in its published weekly bulletin, announced that no individual will be allowed entry into JAMB offices nationwide, except they provide their Covid-19 vaccination card.
JAMB stated staff and visitors to the board’s office must provide the vaccination card and an identification card to ensure that individuals do not provide vaccination cards that do not belong to them.
JAMB’s directive was coming at a time there has been a sharp rise in Covid-19 cases since the discovery of the new Omicron variant in early December.
The examination body noted that the policy, as announced, is in tandem with the NCDC policy of no vaccination, no access to public places as well as ensuring that only persons eligible for vaccination are vaccinated and issued the card.