Out of the 501 candidates with disabilities who sat for the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) in the eleven designated centres in the country, no fewer than 32 of them participated in the examination in Ekiti State.
The other designated centres are Abuja, Enugu, Benin, Oyo, Lagos, Bauchi, Kebbi, Kano, Jos and Yola.
The Coordinator of the JAMB Equal Opportunity Group (JEOG) in Ekiti State, Prof. Rashid Aderinoye, disclosed this yesterday in Ado-Ekiti, the state’s capital.
This was just as the Ekiti State Governor, Biodun Oyebanji, said the state’s university is now establishing a special education department.
Prof Aderinoye said the 501 candidates across the eleven centres wrote the exam on April 28 and 29, noting that JAMB has held this exam for the past eight years.
“Prof Oloyede thought that everybody must be carried along, which is why he ensured that both the able and disabled were involved.
“The essence is to ensure that children that are disabled either in form of blindness, ear impairment, and other areas that we have to take care of them. Even people who are amputated and cannot write, people will have to sit by him or her to write for them.”
The Governor commended JAMB for providing candidates with disabilities the opportunity to participate in the UTME, adding that it has afforded physically challenged candidates access to tertiary institutions to pursue their careers.
The Governor hailed the Board’s Registrar, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, for coming up with the JEOG.
Speaking at the Ekiti State University( EKSU), Ado-Ekiti centre, the Governor, represented by his
Special Adviser on Special Education and Social Inclusion, Adetoun Agboola, expressed the state government’s readiness to continue to support the education of People With Disabilities(PwDs) in the state.
The Special Adviser revealed the government’s efforts in the promotion of the education of People With Disabilities (PWDs), saying that the state’s university is now in the process of establishing the department of special education.
She added that the initiative will provide access and opportunity for higher education for graduates of the special schools in their catchment areas.
In his address, the Vice-Chancellor of EKSU, Prof. Joseph Ayodele, represented by the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academics), Prof. Wole Adebayo, thanked the federal government and JAMB for the equal opportunity extended to the disadvantaged candidates through JEOG and congratulated them for making themselves available by grabbing the opportunity.
“This programme gives us the impetus that there is ability in disability, that if we give equal opportunity to everybody in education,” said Ayodele.
A legal practitioner and the Head, Directorate of Legal Matters, Ekiti State University, Gboyega Afolabi, who is also visually impaired, appreciated JAMB for providing the platform.
