The Joint Admission and Matriculations Board (JAMB) has approved free registration for persons living with disability who wish to sit for the 2024/2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).
Ishaq Oloyede, the registrar of JAMB made this known while rolling out the registration process for interested candidates across the country.
Oloyede announced that registration for the 2024 matriculation examination will commence on Monday, January 15, 2024, and that the tertiary institutions’ entrance examination umpire board will issue free application documents to all categories of persons living with disability as a form of support.
“To support the PLWD, JAMB will issue free application documents to all categories of persons living with disabilities in the advertisement for the 2024 UTME/DE,” he said.
The former vice-chancellor of the University of Ilorin, also disclosed that measures have been put in place to ensure a smooth exercise for all candidates, as he reiterated that audiobooks will now be provided for all blind candidates.
The registrar maintained the development was a digital adaptation of the traditional reading book, noting that it will come in popular audio formats such as MP3, WMV, and WMA which will be compatible with all devices that can stream audio records.
Furthermore, he said the suggestion for the provision of audiobooks was made at the first national conference on equal opportunity of access to higher education in Nigeria.
Apart from the blind candidates, other groups to benefit from the free registration according to the examination body are people with Down Syndrome, Autism, Dyslexia Disorder, and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.
“The following categories of candidates will now be listed under the disability group: Down syndrome, Autism, Dyslexia disorder, and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity disorder (ADHD),” he said.
