Professor Saheed Aderinoye said 24 candidates at the Ado-Ekiti centre received free accommodation, feeding and other support while sitting the unified tertiary matriculation examination. He spoke at the Ekiti State University centre in Ado-Ekiti as JAMB continued the arrangement across 11 designated centres nationwide.
Ado-Ekiti support arrangement
Aderinoye, the Centre Coordinator for the JAMB Equal Opportunity Group in Ekiti State, said the candidates were exempted from registration fees and placed in hotels within their examination centres. He said JAMB also provided free meals throughout the examination period and subsidised transport from candidates’ various towns, including transportation for their guides.
“In addition to free registration, JAMB ensures that candidates with special needs are given free accommodation and feeding.” He added that the candidates still sat the same examination as other applicants. “The questions are the same as those for other candidates. What JAMB has done is to create an enabling environment that allows them to compete fairly” he said.
JAMB Equal Opportunity Group
The arrangement was introduced about a decade ago by JAMB Registrar Professor Isaq Oloyede. JAMB has kept it in place for special needs candidates across Abuja, Lagos, Enugu, Ado-Ekiti, Oyo, Yola, Bauchi, Jos and Kebbi, with some centres accommodating as many as 100 candidates.
Aderinoye said the difference in the exercise lies in the support package, not the test itself. The Ekiti centre’s 24 candidates were part of a nationwide system built to remove registration, accommodation, feeding and transport costs for candidates and their guides.
EKSU welcomes JAMB
Professor Olufemi Oke, speaking for the Vice Chancellor of Ekiti State University, said the university complemented the arrangement with free transportation and a free hall. “And I’m very much impressed about what I heard the government doing for them, about free accommodation, free feeding, that is why the university also complements that one by giving them free transportation and free hall.”
For candidates who reached Ado-Ekiti for the examination, the support package meant the logistics around the test were handled before they walked into the hall. The same structure now runs across 11 designated centres, with the Ekiti figure showing how many people the programme had to carry at one site this year.
