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Story by Isaac Mortey
A developmental pediatrician is raising an alarm over what she says is a growing number of 15-year-olds being admitted to universities.
He has urged education authorities to act before the practice becomes entrenched.
Dr. Brew, who specializes in child development, said she noticed the trend this year. She is familiar with the competencies designed for learners aged 12 to 18 in Ghana’s secondary school system.
The system assumes that a student entering Senior High School at about 15 will be fully prepared for university by 18.
Her concern deepened after a parent asked her for a medical report to support a 15-year-old’s university application. The course was a routine programme that does not require exceptional grades.
When she asked why a child so young was going to university, the parents explained that the child had skipped a level in secondary school.
According to the account, the child moved from a private school to a government school, wrote the BECE at JHS 3, completed SHS 1 and 2, and sat the final examination early.
The child also has significant medical needs, and the family had asked for the report to submit to the university. Dr. Brew said the case exposes questions that institutions have not answered:
Will the university ensure the child takes prescribed medication, day and night?
Will anyone monitor the child overnight and take them to hospital if needed?
If the child needs a blood transfusion, who gives legal consent, given that a 15-year-old cannot?
“The parents believe the university is taking responsibility for their child, and that is why they are asking for the report,” he observed.
Dr. Brew stressed that university readiness cannot be measured by examination results alone.
She noted that Ghanaian students who move abroad are typically placed in classes by age, not by the level they reached in Ghana. She added that applicants to many universities abroad are assessed beyond exam scores, through essays, interviews and other evaluations of suitability.
She asked university authorities what exactly they intend to teach a child that young, and warned of mental, emotional and educational difficulties in the years ahead.
In her view, the country risks producing young adults who have missed their childhood because they were forced to grow up too early.
Dr. Brew pointed to neighbouring Nigeria as a country that has moved to tighten age rules.
The Nigeria’s Education Minister announced in July 2024 that candidates must be at least 18 before seeking admission to higher institutions. The government later said guidelines would address exceptions for exceptionally gifted students. Reports in 2025 indicate that the federal government set 16 years as the minimum admission age from the 2025/2026 academic session.
The debate there continues, with critics arguing that age should not outweigh academic merit.
Dr. Brew stressed that her appeal reaches beyond any single university. She called on the Ghana Education Service, university authorities and all stakeholders to define and enforce a minimum age for university entry, whichever figure the country settles on.
He noted that some countries use 18 and others around 16. Whatever the threshold, she said, institutions must have clear plans for supervision, welfare and care before admitting younger students.
“We are just postponing a problem,” she said, urging a dispassionate national conversation. “Let us keep universities for the appropriate age.”