The Chairman, JAMB Equal Opportunity Group, JEOG, and Coordinator, Lagos and Ogun state centers, Professor Peter Okebukola has lauded the Vice-Chancellor, Prof Oluwatoyin Ogundipe, FAS for his immense contribution towards indigent and visually challenged students. The former National Universities Commission (NUC) Boss said the Vice Chancellor’s input has helped government initiatives and consequently impacted positively on the society.
This remark was made earlier today when a sizeable number of visually impaired candidates converged at the Distance Learning Institute of the University of Lagos to participate in this year’s 2022 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).
Prof. Ogundipoe, during an interactive session with Journalists, highlighted the importance of the initiative and that it should be seen as an avenue to encourage the physically challenged students which invariably puts them on the same level playing field as their other counterparts. A notion, he asserted, is to promote equality through merit than sympathy as it once were.
He also revealed that a respectable number of blind candidates processed through the JAMB Equal Opportunity Group, JEOG, have secured admission to federal, state, and private universities and should be sustained.
He expressed satisfaction about the level of participation of visually challenged students on the university campus while stating that more support will be given to them whenever the need arises. While he alluded to the fact that the university remains a melting pot of society, he strongly believes that diversity and the need to constantly provide an atmosphere for an all-inclusive Campus is the way to go. It will be recalled that the Vice-Chancellor at the university’s 51st convocation ceremonies, requested support for indigent and visually impaired students for their online learning through his P3P strategy. This led to the donation of tablets (iPad) to support indigent students by Dr. Jim Ovia, the Founder/ Chairman, Zenith Bank Plc. Giving a breakdown of the distribution, the Professor of Botany said that 54 of the delivered ipads were given to the visually impaired students of the university which he said remained a core academic need of every student of the institution.
The Vice-Chancellor was awarded a plaque by Prof. Peter Okebukola in recognition of his outstanding leadership to quality learning amongst all the students without discrimination prior to the commencement of this year’s examination.
