The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), has called on the Federal Government to establish more centres of learning for deaf people in the country.
The registrar Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, said that the establishment of such centres in five other geopolitical zones of the country would meet demands of those with disabilities.
He disclosed this when Dr Khadijat Rashid, team leader of Community of Deaf in Nigeria visited Minister of State for Education, Prof. Anthony Anwukah, to solicit for the establishment of a university for over 17 million deaf people living in the country.
Prof. Oloyede said that the establishment of a deaf centre in Ilorin, Kwara state, for over 30 years needed to come alive for the deaf citizens to actualize their dreams.
According to him, after the establishment of the centres in Ilorin, the funding was stopped which influenced the call for its resuscitation.
He said there was need to establish and have signers in centers in the university of Maiduguri, University of Nigeria, University of Ibadan, University of Calabar and Bayero State University.
Prof. Oloyede said: “Some universities like the Bayero university and the university of calabar are doing well as the schools have graduated students but with pain as their were no signers to interpret for them.
“We agreed at the meeting with them that other established centres need signers just as it had in the centre in University of Ilorin.”
On the other hand, Dr. Rashid called for the support of the Federal Government to establish a special university for the over 17 million deaf people in the country.
Rashid, who is also the Dean, School of Education, Business and Human Services, Gallaudet University, Washington said the establishment of the university was important to help the hearing impaired citizens have learning in the country.
“Many deaf people who were Nigerians were opportuned to work with the Wesley University owned by the Methodist Church, Nigeria.
“We want the government of Nigeria to establish a deaf universities in Nigeria that will help the over 17 million deaf citizens service their needs.
“We therefore seek the efforts and support of the ministry and the government of Nigeria to meet the yearnings of the special people in our nation,” he said.
Rashid, however, appealed that the disability bill before the National Assembly be passed into law as it had been in the Senate for the past 15 years without any development to its passage.
In his response, Prof. Anwukah urged the association to tidy up and perfect every document with the NUC to enable it act quickly and make headway on their demands.
He pledged the ministry’s support for the initiative while calling on the university of Wesley to encourage Nigerians who had studied abroad to return home.
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