By Adesina Wahab

The Registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, JAMB, Prof. Isaq Oloyede, has been applauded for giving adequate consideration to People Living With Disabilities, PLWDs, in the conduct of the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examinations, UTME.

This year’s edition of the examination, which began some days ago, saw extra-humane consideration for special candidates – the PLWDs.

Oloyede initiated the PLWDs – focused aspect of the  UTME im 2017, though it had remained largely unsung all the while but with this year’s edition, Oloyede and his team have turned JAMB and UTME into a source of succour for the special candidates, a beacon of  hope for a better Nigeria.

Christened the JAMB Equal Opportunity Group, JEOG, the project is designed to ensure absolute comfort for the visually impaired and other physically challenged candidates throughout the duration of their own aspect of  writing the UTME.

Briefing the media on the sideline of the examination holding at the Distance Learning Institute of the University of Lagos, Prof Olanrewaju Fagbohun, SAN, the Coordinator of Lagos Centre, comprising Lagos and Ogun States, explained that the JEOG project is a brainchild of the Registrar and Chief Executive Officer of JAMB intentionally and compassionately designed not only for the comfort of the special candidates of the vital examination, but to ensure total Inclusivity for all candidates regardless of their physical challenges.

“Sometime in 2017, JAMB put together a body known as the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Equal Opportunity Group with the acronym JEOG. The goal of the body is to look at how to create an equal opportunity for people living with disabilities and these are people who have problems with vision, those who have hearing impairment, those who have locomotor (movement) disadvantage.

“So, JAMB felt that these people are also champions in their own rights but if you put them under the same condition at the general centre with candidates who have no disability, nobody will recognise the need to give them the special care and attention that they deserve.

 “That was how JEOG was created and the chairman of the body is Distinguished Emeritus Prof Peter Okebukola. There are eleven centres across the country. I am the Coordinator of the Lagos Centre comprising Lagos and Ogun States. Prof Okebukola is the Chairman of all the 11 centres.

“What we do is this; after JAMB has announced we are going to have the UTME exam, we at JEOG will recommend two or three days for us to be able to deal with the people with special needs. We would have got a list of the candidates who had reported one disability or the other as required in their application forms, even as we ensure there is no capturing error in their subject combinations.

” After JAMB must have approved, we  look at our list of all the people living with disabilities from Lagos and Ogun, we will extract their names  and start calling them one by one two months ahead of the date of their exam. One reason for this is to be sure that the candidates are within the centre zone so that if we find out for example that you are in Enugu, we tell you to write your exam at Enugu centre. We also want to be sure that we know the things we need to prepare for you ahead of your arrival and when we have confirmed all of that we will call to tell you to arrive a day before your examination day.

“The soothing surprise about all this compassionate gesture of JEOG and JAMB is that from the evening of arrival of the special candidates and their accompanying guide, they are fed, accommodated and transported between their hotel rooms already arranged ahead for them and other logistics are fully borne by JAMB-JEOG.

“Not that alone, all the special candidates are supplied with free gifts of the braile and stylus as well as other aiding facilities as may be needed by the special candidates according to their individual challenges.

“Even those who have the challenge of using their arms but can listen, hear and comprehend, loud reading are provided with special guide at the expense of the body to help write the exact answer dictated by the candidates after the questions have been read out,” he said.

Prof Fagbohun was full of applause for Prof Oloyede who initiated the JEOG project.

The immediate past VC of LASU also gave kudos to Prof Okebukola for the good work he has been doing as the Chairman of JEOG.

Fagbohun advised parents who happen to have such special children never to give up on them, saying that children with such disabilities are often loaded with talents that must be discovered and harnessed not only for the benefit of the child and family but also the larger society and the world.

The professor of environmental law also enjoined Nigerians to believe in Nigeria, this is even as he added that educational institutions must begin to recalibrate their programmes and administration in such a way that would conveniently accommodate and inclusively cater for the people living with disabilities.

In a chat with some parents and guides of the special candidates at the Lagos Centre, Pastor Maria Adesina, a mother to one of the special candidates at the Lagos Centre expressed her pleasant surprise at what JAMB introduced for the inclusive comfort of the candidates with special needs.

” I am personally grateful to Prof Oloyede, JAMB and all the staff in charge of the centre for the wonderful job they are are all doing.and this has convinced me that there is still so much hope for Nigeria”; Adesina stated.

Deaconess Kaliku Gift,  another mother at the centre said, ” I am very impressed by what I have seen here today. If JAMB could just keep up with this system, there would be much brighter hope for the special students and the future of the nation. I wish that WAEC and others could just emulate JAMB in this regard.”

Mr Badipe Olatubosun described the development as laudable and expressed gratitude to JAMB and JEOG.

He, however, asked that the government should also create an enabling environment for gainful employment for the PLWDs after facilitating the opportunity for them to actualise themselves educationally.

Another elated parent, Engr Adebowale Adegbayi acclaimed the JEOG gesture as a big surprise and expressed the hope that Nigeria is not finished after all.

Earlier, the representative of the Lagos State Government at the Centre, Dr Adekola had encouraged the candidates not to lose hope at all that LASODA, a Lagos state office specifically created to cater for the affairs of the persons living with disabilities, is there to ensure that everything concerning them is addressed, including the assurance of gainful employment for them on the completion of their academic pursuits even as officially provided for in state Employment Act.