The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has created 11 centres for Persons With Disability (PWDs) in the ongoing 2023 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examinations (UTME).
Sunday Ododo, the chairman of the JAMB Equal Opportunity Group (JEOG) for the board’s Abuja centre, spoke on Friday.
Ododo said creating the PWD centres is to guarantee a level playing ground for all candidates sitting for the UTME.
He listed the 11 centres for the special candidates to be in Ado-Ekiti, Bauchi, Benin, Enugu, Jos, Kano, Kebbi, Lagos, Oyo, Yola and Abuja.
The exam to be conducted specifically for the visually impaired among them, the chairman added, is to be held between April 27 and 29.
Ododo said JAMB is aware of candidates with special needs who may not favourably compete with others who have no special needs.
The chairman said his group has, as a result, been committing effort and resources to process over 2,600 candidates with special needs for UTME since 2017.
“In 2019, out of the 390 special candidates that sat for the exam, 175 candidates were given admission,” the chairman said.
“In 2020, 89 of the 351 special candidates that sat for the UTME got admissions.
”In 2021, a total of 110 blind candidates were given admission, out of the 332 that sat for the UTME.
“In 2022, 139 candidates gained admissions out of the 364 candidates that wrote the examinations. However, there is no favouritism in testing these candidates.”
Ododo said the JEOG was initially created for visually impaired candidates but it now also caters for persons with albinism, down syndrome, and attention deficit hyper active disorder (ADHD).
He said PWDs wrote the same examination with those without disabilities within the same time frame in the years before 2017.
On the mode of UTME administration for PWDs in the ongoing exam, Ododo said JAMB will deploy a blended use of PCs, the traditional Braille slate, and stylus/typewriters.
The 2023 UTME started on April 25 and is to end on May 3.
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