Fifteen(15) - an inappropriate age for college entry?

It's no news that its been argued all too frequently if its okay for a child to gain entry into a college at the age of fourteen or fifteen. While some might advocate that it doesn't really matter whatever age a child gets into college, there is no doubt that this notion has been met with great opposition even with Nigerian universities making the age 16 the ideal age for college entry.

source

Firstly, lets answer the question "how does the school process work?"

Inherently, gone are those days when children have to wait for their hands to comfortably cross over their head to touch their ear before they can actually begin school attendance. This is an era where as far as a child is a year old and can mutter a few words, he is placed in' kindergarten school', nowadays there's even a 'creche' system in place for children below the age of one.
With Nigeria's educational setting, kindergarten is in place for 2 years before the next stage which is the 'Nursery school'. The Nursery school lasts for 3 years before moving on to the 'primary school' which lapses in 5years. Putting the years into consideration that's basically 10 years of a child's life.
After sitting for an examination that determines if the child is ready to further into the next stage of his/her academic life and passes, he is then placed in a 'junior secondary school' where he is supposed to learn for three years before moving on to a 'senior secondary school' which is meant to lapse in three years marking an extra 6 years making the child's current total academic year equal to 16 but here lies the catch...
Most secondary schools has a system in place whereby their duration ends in two years, sometimes it's the parents request that their children take their qualification exam in SS2 and with this in place, a child graduates from secondary school at 15 instead of the intended 16 and proceed to write their entrance exam to a college at the same age of 15.

Sometimes, the reason for this somewhat early entry into college is due to the fluctuation in the Nigerian educational system with Academic staff union of universities (ASUU) going on strikes more than often and the need for students to graduate at a more suitable age and go in search of what life has got installed for them. Most times, it's just due to the parents need for their children's education just so their children could ascertain success at a very young age.

Now, most people has shown their discern towards this process claiming that it is inappropriate for minors to be admitted into the university with reasons pertaining that surviving in any higher institution requires more than academic excellence but more of mental capacity and resilience, maturity both psychological and emotionally. And if these criteria are not met, then the child will be open to negative influences and suicidal cases when matters arises. In most cases, these children tend to lose focus after being thrust into an environment where there is no supervision from their respective parents or any form of guardian thus leading them to engage in non positive acts and for this to be curbed, they should posses some sort of maturity before gaining entry into the university and the accepted age range should be between 16-18 and above.

But does age really matter?...