The Federal Ministry of Education has said that individuals with special needs will henceforth be exempted from the post-Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination.
This information was revealed by Sonny Echono, the Permanent Secretary for The Federal Ministry of Education during the 2019 Policy meeting on admission organised by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board in Gbongan, Osun State.
He said “The board and the tertiary institutions should ensure that candidates under the Special Needs category are considered for admission provided they meet the minimum requirements. They are; blind and deaf candidates, prison candidates, foreign centre candidates. These candidates should be exempted from any other test apart from the routine scrutiny of their credentials.”
Speaking further Sonny Echono said, “Admission to all programmes leading to the award of a first degree, national diploma and Nigeria Certificate in Education must be processed through the Central Admissions Processing System of JAMB. Also, all tertiary institutions must ensure that they update their matriculation lists on the Central Admissions Processing System as appropriate in content and on time.”
Also in its quest to curb examination malpractices and impersonation, the Permanent Secretary has said that institutions should only use the pictures submitted to JAMB for candidate verification.
He said, “In order to halt the substitution of candidates with impersonators, JAMB has been directed to make available to all tertiary institutions the facial and finger images of the candidates of each institution for screening. It is therefore not permitted for any tertiary institution to retake fresh photographs or fingerprints.”
He also said no tertiary institution should collect above the ministry’s approved fee of N2,000 for any post-UTME screening.
