The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) says it has created 11 centres for Persons With Disability (PWDs) for the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examinations (UTME).
Prof. Sunday Ododo, Chairman, JAMB Equal Opportunity Group (JEOG) for the Abuja Centre, announced this at a news conference in Abuja on Friday.
Ododo commended the leadership of JAMB headed by Prof. Is-haq Oloyede for the initiative to create the JEOG to give level playing ground for candidates sitting for UTME.
According to him, JAMB is aware of the plight of candidates with special needs.
“From 2017 till date, JEOG has processed over 2,600 candidates from these special community for the UTME.
“In 2019, out of the 390 special candidates that sat for the exam, 175 got admission.
“Eighty-nine out of 351 special candidates secured admission in 2020 while in 2021, about 110 visually impaired candidates got admission through UTME.
“In 2022, 139 candidates gained admissions out of the 364 that wrote the examinations.
“However, there is no favouritism in testing these candidates,” he said.
Ododo added that JEOG was initially created for virtually impaired candidates alone.
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But that it now catered for persons with albinism, down syndrome and those with attention deficit hyperactive disorder.
“Before 2017, PWDs write the same examination with those without disabilities within the same time frame.
“But there were challenges, which was why the Registrar created the group to address these challenges.”
He said the mode of examination administration was blended with use of Personal Computers, traditional Braille slate and stylus/typewriters.
He listed 11 centres for special candidates to include Ado-Ekiti, Bauchi, Benin, Enugu, Jos, Kano, Kebbi, Lagos, Oyo, Yola and Abuja.
JEOG, he said, had proposed to the board for gradual appropriation of ICT components into the administration of JEOG.
He also revealed that JAMB had approved gradual migration to full CBT mode customised for blind candidates beginning from 2024.
He said that a pilot run would be conducted later in the year to test this mode.
Candidates who chose for fully Braille, fully CBT and full read-aloud modes would have options to do so.
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