Nigeria’s college admissions physique has mentioned visually impaired candidates who paid for the continuing Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) registration shall be refunded on the level of examination, and audio variations of prescribed texts shall be offered after registration closes.
The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), which administers the UTME, had mentioned that registration could be free for blind candidates and different individuals with disabilities (PWDs), and that accessible variations of the obligatory English textual content could be made out there.
However a number of candidates who spoke to TechCabal final week claimed they paid the registration charge of ₦7,200 ($5.3) at registration centres throughout the nation and had been issued exhausting copies of the prescribed literature with out audio or soft-copy alternate options.
JAMB spokesperson Fabian Benjamin advised TechCabal on Wednesday throughout a phone interview that the cost requirement was a ‘safeguard in opposition to abuse of the coverage’ and never a reversal of it.
“Why they’re paying is as a result of, when you don’t ask them to pay, Nigerians being what they’re, everyone shall be accumulating the pin with out us realizing, as a result of we don’t have any mechanism to examine who’s visually impaired or who will not be,” Benjamin mentioned.
The clarification follows complaints that blind candidates had been charged charges and given inaccessible hard-copy supplies, elevating contemporary questions on how the examination physique communicates and implements particular lodging for candidates with disabilities.
In keeping with the spokesperson, JAMB processes registrations via each its personal and personal centres, making upfront verification troublesome, including that visually impaired candidates shall be refunded their registration charges once they arrive for the examination, the place the board additionally offers lodging, transport to and from the examination venue, and lodging for his or her guides.
“Once you come for the examination, we’ll refund the cost that you’ve made in your transport cash for coming and your lodging for you and your information,” he mentioned.
A number of candidates, nevertheless, mentioned they weren’t knowledgeable on the level of cost that the charge would later be refunded.
‘Onerous copy texts have QR codes to gentle copy’
On the difficulty of examine supplies, candidates mentioned they got exhausting copies of the prescribed English textual content regardless of earlier indications that accessible codecs could be offered.
Benjamin mentioned the bodily e-book accommodates a QR code on the again that hyperlinks to a gentle copy.
“In case you look in the back of the exhausting copy of the e-book, you will note a QR code. When you scan the QR code, you may have the gentle copy of the e-book,” he mentioned.
When requested how blind candidates would independently know {that a} QR code was printed in the back of the e-book, Benjamin mentioned the board had publicised the data via radio and tv broadcasts.
“The knowledge is on the market. There’s ample data on the market,” he insisted.
He added that the promised audio model of the prescribed textual content could be emailed to visually impaired candidates after registration closes.
“As for the audiobook, it is going to be emailed to them as soon as JAMB registration is over. Registration is ending quickly, and as soon as now we have all of the blind candidates’ particulars from the registration, they are going to be emailed the audio copy of the e-book,” he promised.
Registration for the 2026 UTME, which started on January 26, is scheduled to shut on February 28, and the primary examination will run from April 16 to April 25, in response to the board’s official timetable.
501 blind candidates sat for the 2025 examination throughout 11 designated centres in Nigeria on April 28 and 29, 2025.
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