National Coordinator, JAMB Equal Opportunity Group, Prof. Peter Okebukola, says the 2018 UTME (Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination) exercise will produce good results.
Okebukola, a fomer Executive Secretary, National Universities Commission (NUC), said this on Monday as 127 visually impaired candidates in Southwest commenced their exam the Distance Learning Institute of the University of Lagos (UNILAG).
The results are expected to be released on Tuesday on JAMB portal www.jamb.org.ng
His group is responsible for administering the 2018 UTME to both the prisoners and the blind candidates nationwide.
Not less than 340 visually impaired candidates registered for the examination nationwide.
In a chat with NAN, Okebukola noted that already the group had on Saturday conducted the examination for those in the prisons.
He said the visually impaired candidates listed for the examination nationwide have been assembled in “high grade hotels” with very good feeding and transportation arrangements and other logistics that would make them feel comfortable before and after the examination.
He noted that the two-day examination (March 19 and March 20) would be taken through the dictation mode as was obtained in 2017.
“For now, they will have to make do with the dictation mode as the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), organisers of the examination, is working towards a suitable CBT mode soon”, he said.
“The software we have now that comes with the Braille Note Apex machine is not Nigerian enough for their comprehension.
“So, we are developing a software that will have a Nigerian inbuilt intonation.
“We are hopeful that before the commencement of the 2019 UTME, we would gave moved quite far in the development of the software”.
According to the former NUC scribe, this year’s examination generally had been adjudged more successful when compared to what obtained in 2017 in terms of logistics and quality.
The don said: “When I talk of the quality of the examination, I am talking in terms of the manner of presentation through this platform.
“We expect that the candidates will come out with good grades and those who are successful in both the UTME and the Post UTME and meet the criteria for placements into universities of their choices would have equal opportunity as their sighted counterparts.
“And that is why we in the Equal Opportunity Group are deploying all resources available to us in ensuring that equal opportunity is given to all regardless of any form of disability and I think the larger society should also toe this path.”
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