Ahead of the 2024 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) is to establish counseling and development centres for people living with disabilities (PLWD).
In establishing these all-important centres, the Board would leverage on its ICT tools for candidates with special needs and their peculiarities.
The establishment of counseling and development centres may not be unconnected the Board’s commitment to removing all hindrances and encumbrances that could constitute challenges to candidates with special needs in the course of completing their applications documents as well as of fer them to navigate the limitations that require consideration in their proposed areas of study.
Also, such centres would prove invaluable to efforts to addressing the series of issues raised during the just-concluded “National Conference on Equal Opportunity of Access to Higher Education in Nigeria”.
At the level of the Board, such a counseling centre would serve as a collaborative effort between JAMB and the public to help them identify goals as well as explore potential solutions to problems which could constitute hindrances in the realization of the candidate’s dream career, improve communication, skills and strengthen self-esteem and inclusivity.
To achieve the full potential of such a centre, the Board would liaise with other government agencies and institutions in the education sector to provide guidance and counseling services to candidates with special needs.
It is to be recalled that the conference had stressed the need for the Board to put mechanisms in place to stop negative and undue interferences of parents in the choice of course of study of PLWD into tertiary institutions following the account of the National President for the Blind, Mr. Stanley Oyebuchi, who detailed his personal experience in that regard.
The Registrar, Prof. Is-haq Oloyede, in reaction to such a scenario, announced the decision of the Board to put a stop to such undue interference in the choice of course of study of PLWD as obtains with regular admissions, as, going forward, no parent would be allowed to have a say in the admission choices of candidates wit h disabilities.