44 blind candidates write UTME exams in Bauchi Centre

From Ahmad Muhammad , Bauchi

Forty-four blind candidates have sat for 2024 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) examination in Bauchi Centre at Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University (ATBU) Yelwa Campus under the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB).
The candidates were drawn from the four states of the Northeast zone namely; Bauchi, Borno, Gombe and Yobe for the exercise on Monday.
The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), a body responsible for conducting examinations for entry into tertiary institutions in Nigeria has introduced the blind UTME programme to give people with special needs equal opportunity to achieve their dreams.
Speaking with journalists on the exercise, the UTME Blind Bauchi Centre Coordinator, Professor Salisu Shehu called on the Bauchi State government to create awareness among people with disabilities to enable them access services of the board.
Professor Shehu observed that with adequate awareness especially to parents of disabled persons, more candidates would be motivated to sit for the JAMB examinations.
He said, “I’m appealing to the Bauchi State Government to create awareness so that many parents will get to know this kind of arrangement JAMB has put in place to encourage and motivate them, so that we get more candidates in future”.
The coordinator also called on candidates sitting for the examinations to conduct themselves well, abide by the rules and regulations, and avoid being emotional when they come to sit for the examination, saying they should feel motivated and less emotional so that they can write the exams very well.
Professor Shehu, said that almost half of the 44 candidates sitting for the JAMB examination are from Bauchi, described the challenges of the exercise as multi-faceted, as one can contact a candidate through phone for about five times only to find that it was switched-off.