Prof Ishaq Oloyede, Registrar, Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), says efforts have been intensified to improve on the welfare of the visually challenged, in a bid to give them a sense of belonging.
Oloyede stated this while monitoring the ongoing Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) of the visually impaired candidates which held at the University of Lagos cluster centre on Friday.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that a total of 66 visually impaired candidates are participating in this year’s examination in the Lagos cluster centre, comprising Lagos and Ogun.
According to him, the Federal Government is determined in ensuring that equal opportunity is given to every Nigerian child, irrespective of status.
” I feel that the committee handling this examination for the board is doing a good job under Prof. Peter Okebukola and I also believe that we are giving sense of belonging to those who we believe are incapacitated by one disability or the other.
“And from what I have seen, they are very happy that the country cares about them,” he said.
Earlier, Okebukola, a one time National Universities Commission (NUC) Executive Secretary, and Chairman of the JAMB Equal Opportunity Group, said that since 2017, the group had processed about 2,600 candidates for the UTME.
According to him, over a third of the candidates which include the visually impaired and other disabilities such as down syndrome and autism, had been admitted to study courses of their choice in institutions of higher learning across the country, particularly universities.
He said that this initiative by JAMB had been cited in the last four years in several countries, as a good model for Africa.
A total of f 364 of such special candidates participated in this year’s UTME