By Apata Oyeniran
The Registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Prof. Is-haq Oloyede, has pledged equal opportunity for candidates with disabilities desirous of tertiary education.
The Registrar made this pledge when the National Resource Centre for the Disabled (NRCD), Federal College of Education (Special),Oyo, paid him a courtesy visit to his office.
The Registrar, in his remarks, thanked the delegation for the visit.
He, however, stated that, ordinarily he would not have given audience to the visitors as the Board does not attend to an arm of institutions but had to bend over backwards to accommodate the delegation on account of the calibre of people managing the Centre.
He congratulated the Director of the Centre on his appointment and assured him of equal opportunity for all groups that yearn for higher education.
He advised that to facilitate synergy and proper planning, it would be better if persons with disabilities are categorised their peculiarities and national outlook rather than the various individual centres being established by institutions, which he said might not yield the results or elicit the kind of attention required.
He urged the Director, NRCD, to ensure that their requests are presented through their Provost for onward delivery to the Board Further in his remarks, Prof. Oloyede briefed the delegation on the various proactive measures taken by the Board to cater for candidates with disabilities through the creation of the JAMB Equal Opportunity Group (JEOG), of which the Director was a member, stating that the request would be referred to it for appropriate recommendations.
Earlier, the Director of NRCD, Mr. Dagbo Suleiman Saka, commended the Registrar on his various achievements since his assumption of office, particularly with respect to initiatives in special education.
While informing the Registrar of the mandates of the centre, he pointed out that the FCE, Oyo, was the only College of Special Education in the whole of sub-Sahara Africa and which incidentally also has the largest concentration of students with disabilities in Africa.
He said the College currently houses 459 Deaf students, 73 Blind students and 83 students with other disabilities.
He, thereafter, sought the Board’s intervention in terms of enabling the Centre to function in line with global best practice on issues concerning persons with disabilities.