Close up of blind African American man reading book in braille in college library lounge
No fewer than 577 blind candidates are set to take the 2024 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination UTME in 11 centres nationwide.
Chairman of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board Equal Opportunity Group, Emeritus Professor Peter Okebukola made this known on Thursday while addressing newsmen in preparation for the 2024 UTME for blind candidates and others with special needs assigned to JEOG.
Registrar of JAMB, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede set up the JAMB Equal Opportunity Group in 2017 for the effective handling
of the blind candidates and others with special needs.
According to Okebukola, “This year and for the first time, JAMB, through JEOG, will implement the bimodal system of UTME administration.
“This involves Fully-Braille and Fully Read-Aloud. Candidates have a choice of mode. JEOG has been resourced by JAMB to make the experience of the two modes of test administration pleasant for the candidates.
“With a total of 577 blind candidates, the 2024 UTME presents the highest number. We had 348 in 2022, and 313 in 2023. The 2024 increase is largely due to increased advocacy by JEOG, a process which will be bolstered in the coming years,” he said.
Okebukola who is also the President of the Global University Network for Innovation, described Oloyede, as one of the strongest pillars of equal opportunity of access to higher education in Africa.
He said, “In the last four days, I have conferred with members of GUNi-Africa on how blind candidates aspiring for higher education in Africa are treated in their countries and all are in agreement that Nigeria, through Oloyede, stands clearly out as the best.”
Okebukola noted that “This year, all blind candidates who are prima facie qualified for admission to institutions of higher learning in Nigeria (that is with at least five O-level credits) will have the cost of their UTME registration refunded on-site during the examination.”
The former Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission said the other five “goodies” that Oloyede had been showering on the candidates since 2017 were free hotel accommodation for the blind candidates and their guides, free Braille slate and stylus, customised t-shirts; free meals through the examination period and transport supplementation for the blind candidates and their guides.
