BRASILIA, March 6: An eight-year-old Brazilian boy who passed an entrance exam to study law at university has been blocked from starting because the institution wants him to first finish primary school, a report said on Thursday.

Joao Victor Portelinha de Oliveira successfully won entry into the law school of Paulista Univerity after completing exams and a writing test last week, the Correio Braziliense daily said.

But the university said he does not qualify because he has not studied at secondary school (high school) level.

The father of the boy told the newspaper he was going to take the matter to court, while young Portelinha de Oliveira said: “I want to study law at the university. It’s decided.”

His mother said her son was not a child genius, but that he was brought up in an intellectually stimulating environment at home.

“Joao Victor is a normal boy, it’s just that he was stimulated, he participated in our discussions and he took interest in current affairs and interacted a lot with adults,” she said.—AFP