Registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Prof. Ishaq 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 in Abuja.

Oloyede, in his remarks, thanked the delegation for the visit. He, however, stated that, ordinarily, he would not have given an audience to the visitors as the board does not attend to an arm of institutions but had to bend over backward to accommodate the delegation on account of the caliber of people managing the centre.

Oloyede 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 categorized by 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.

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The JAMB tegistrar urged the director of NRCD to ensure that their requests are presented through their provost for onward delivery to the board.

Further, Oloyede briefed the delegation on the various proactive measures by the board to cater to 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 assuming office, particularly with respect to initiatives in special education.

While informing the JAMB boss 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.

Saka 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 NRCD to function in line with global best practices on issues concerning persons with disabilities.