2024 UTME: Prof. Adedoja Solicits more school enrollment for special needs children

Former Minister of Sport, Prof. Taoheed Adedoja, has enjoined parents to enroll their special needs children into schools to give them a better future.

Prof. Adedoja who is a member of the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) Equal Opportunity Group, (JEOG), said this at a news conference to kick start the 2024 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination, (UTME), for visually impaired persons and other persons with special needs.

The UTME into tertiary institutions in Nigeria kicked off nationwide on Monday, April 21, and ended on Tuesday, April 22.

Adedoja who is the Centre Coordinator for  the centre at Federal College of Education, Special, Oyo town in Oyo State said that parents should not deny special needs children their rights to quality education, and appealed to them to enroll them into primary and secondary schools.

“Many parents still keep their children at home because of stigmatisation, also, many parents are not even aware that there are opportunities to tap into for their children.

“I am using this medium to appeal to parents to bring their children out to enroll them into primary and secondary education so that they can have this opportunity to access higher education.

“There is no profession that they cannot practice, but we must not deny them the opportunity, JAMB is committed and doing its best to ensure access into higher education for all as part of its mandate.

“JAMB is not to provide access to education for primary or secondary, there are other agency responsible for that, but JAMB cannot succeed if there are no inflows from primary, secondary students that are desirous and that is why there is a need for collaboration,” Adedoja said.

Also, senator representing Oyo Central Senatorial District, Dr Yunus Akintunde, who visited the centre, said he was satisfied with what he saw, and promised to make a case for the college to get more equipment.

Some of the candidates who spoke on the conduct of the examinations commended JAMB

There are 11 centres nationwide (Abuja, Lagos, Ado-Ekiti, Oyo, Bauchi, Kano, Yola, Enugu, Jos, Benin  and Kebbi), that conducted examinations for the 577 special candidates, that registered for JAMB examinations.

At the Federal College of Education one of the centers for the examination in Oyo, 55 candidates participated in the exercise.

The modes of the examination were braille option, read aloud, and individualised testing mode for candidates with autism, and other related challenges.

Jamb was responsible for the hotel accommodation, feeding and transportation for all the candidates and their guides.

JAMB also provided stylus to each candidate after the examination,  and refunded Jamb application fees to candidates.