CHARLES AMPITAN argues that the creation of JEOG has enhanced access to education by candidates with special needs The year 2017 would forever be etched in the collective memory of Nigerians as it marks perhaps the first concrete step by a national institution within the educational system to boost the access of People with Disabilities (PWDs) to tertiary education in the country. This feat was achieved by the Registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Professor Is-haq Oloyede when, just a year after assuming office in 2016, he established the JAMB Equal Opportunity Group (JEOG). The 11-member committee, headed by Professor Peter Okebukola has the mandate of ensuring that all eligible candidates are accorded a level playing field in the Board’s administered Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).
This is to ensure that no one is discriminated against at any point in the board’s assessment and admission process on account of disability. The creation of JEOG is one of the board’s policy initiatives for fostering a more-inclusive assessment outcome by the board. Others are the nine-key initiative, which reduces the entire operation of taking the UTME to just nine computer keys, while another is the establishment of eight other groups charged with the responsibility of fostering inclusive assessment regime in the board’s operational processes.
Perhaps, what is more striking is that, prior to this major policy initiative aimed at fashionin.