- As 383 blind, other candidates sit for 2022 UTME

Prof Ishaq Oloyede, the Registrar of Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), has bagged an award as best advocate of equal opportunity in higher education in Africa.

The JAMB Boss was rated high above others in Africa at a meeting recently held at the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in Paris, where African countries were compared in the opportunities afforded people living with disabilities to access higher education in Nigeria.

Chairman of the JAMB Equal Opportunity Group (JEOG), Prof Emeritus Peter Okebukola, made this known in a statement he personally signed and made available to newsmen in Abuja.

Okebukola, a former Executive Secretary of National Universities Commission who recently returned from UNESCO headquarters in Paris, said he was excited by the rating which was adjudged by the presentation made by JEOG at the meeting.

The Group which was set up by Professor Is-haq Oloyede, in 2017, has processed over 2000 candidates with disabilities especially the blind, albinos with sight challenges, and candidates with autism and Down syndrome through administration of the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).

The Group is made up of 43 senior academics including former Executive Secretaries of Parastatals of the Federal Ministry of Education, former Vice-Chancellors, a former minister and experts in special education and other relevant stakeholders such as the President of the Nigeria Association of the Blind; National President, Joint National Association of Persons with Disabilities; President, The Albino Foundation and President, Nigeria National Association of Deaf.

The Anglo-Nigeria Welfare Association for the Blind plays active role in the exercise.

He said this was in the interest of bringing the venue of the examination closer to the candidates especially with the security situation in the country. A total of 20 subjects will be taken by the candidates.

Okebukola further stressed that the blind candidates and others that are served by the group take the same test items as those who are not blind, explaining that the mode of examination administration is blended - use of PCs and use of the traditional Braille slate and stylus/typewriters in writing answers to questions that are read out by a subject expert.

He added that this was in alignment with the current state of development of Nigeria’s higher education system with regard to education of the blind.

He said, "JEOG is already implementing a strategic plan of gradually increasing the ICT component of administration of the UTME to match improvement in ICT usage for the education of the blind in the universities, polytechnics and colleges of education.

"JAMB takes full responsibility for hotel accommodation and feeding of the candidates in the 11 centres and pays generous transport supplementation while providing them with conducive environment to write the examination"