Bethesda Home for the Blind in Mushin, Lagos State, says the performance of its candidates at the 2019 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) is a sign of greater things to come from the school.
The Proprietress of the school, Mrs Chioma Ohakwe, made the statement in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Saturday in Lagos.
According to her, the heart warming and encouraging performance , is a product of the hard work, dedication, commitment and determination put in place by both the staff and students of the home, before the test.
“This year, we enrolled 25 visually impaired candidates for the JAMB organised UTME, as against the 23 that sat for the same examination in 2018.
“One out of these 25 visually challenged candidates, posted the highest score,: 275 while the lowest was 192.
“This performance is an improvement over that of 2018, where the highest score by one of the candidates was 237, with the lowest was 189.”
She attributed the secret behind the performance to early preparation, commitment and dedication on the part of the teachers and determination on the part of the students.
“We are indeed proud of this performance as it showed that all the efforts put into preparing the candidates ahead of the examination were not in vain.
“Again, we prepared them psychologically, by asking them to take their destinies in their hands while bringing to the fore, the mode of the examination for persons in their category, which is dictation as was applied the year before,” she said.
Ohakwe assured the children that the home through the support of the public and other stakeholders, would continue to do its best for them.
The home would ensure that they were carried along and exposed to various opportunities open to their sighted colleagues in every sphere of life, she said.
NAN reports that the JAMB had at its recent 2019 Policy Meeting on Admissions, appealed to the heads of tertiary institutions across the country to give placements to all such special persons, who must have met the admission requirements.
In his presentation at the meeting, Board’s Registrar, Prof. Is-haq Oloyede, had said: Candidates who sat for UTME in foreign countries, prisons, blind and deaf candidates are to be exempted from the Post UTME tests.
According to him, the list of the respective candidates in these categories will be made available to various tertiary institutions for guidiance and necessary actions.
“This should be treated by the institutions under affirmative and inclusive actions for the accomodation of these categories of candidates.
“The board and tertiary institutions are also to ensure that these categories of candidates who meet minimum requirements are admitted.
” Also that how they are progressing are monitored in the various institutions for the purpose of confirmation of the effectiveness of the policy,” Oloyede had said.
