The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, JAMB, under its JAMB Equal Opportunity Group, JEOG, on Wednesday, conducted the 2021 unified tertiary matriculation examination, UTME, for 335 visually-impaired persons across 11 centres in Nigeria.
Chairman, JEOG, Professor Peter Okebukola and Coordinator, Lagos and Ogun states centres, explained that since the inception of the programme in 2017, over 1,680 candidates have been processed for the UTME with over a third admitted to courses of their choice in higher institutions in the country.
According to the former secretary, National Universities Commission, NUC, “This JAMB initiative has been cited in the several countries as a good model for Africa.
“So far, a respectable number of blind candidates processed through the JAMB Equal Opportunity Group, JEOG, have secured admission to federal, state, and private universities;
“While in 2019, of the 390 candidates, a total of 175(44.8%) gained admission; this was unprecedented in the history of admission of such category of students into Nigerian higher education system, and in 2020, 89 of the 351 blind candidates (25%) also gained admission into various instituons.
“The encouraging development, since 2020, is that more degree-awarding institutions are showing keen interest in admitting suitable qualified blind students.
“The exercise taking place across 11 centres nationwide: Abuja, Ado-Ekiti, Bauchi, Benin, Enugu, Jos, Kano, Kebbi, Lagos, Oyo and Yola.
“We are also grateful to Prof. Is-haq Oloyede, the JAMB Registrar for approving the presentation of a set of slate and stylus to each candidate at the end of the examination to serve as Braille note taking tools, when they finally get admitted to higher institutions,” Prof. Okebukola explained.