I lost my sight while solving Math questions – Visually-impaired student honoured by WAEC

Precious Mbajiorgu, a brilliant visually-impaired student, has described how she lost her sight in primary school when she was 11 years old.

The 28-year-old Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Anambra State, 100 level guidance and counselling undergraduate was recently recognised by the West African Examination Council as the best candidate (physical disability category) in the 2022 Senior School Certificate Examination.

In an interview, she stated that she was solving a Mathematics problem in the classroom with some of her friends when she suddenly lost sight of the blackboard.

Precious said; “I was not born blind. I used to see perfectly when I was a child until I turned 11. It happened between 2007 and 2008, but I cannot remember the exact day. I just went to school that fateful day. Back then, I was a pupil at Awada Primary School, Obosi, near Onitsha. It was in that school that I became visually impaired.

My classmates and I were in the classroom solving mathematics on the board. I had answered the first Maths question and was about to go to the next question when suddenly, I discovered that I could not see the board anymore and could no longer see other things. Everywhere became dark.”

She added; “But before then, I did not feel any symptoms or pain in my eyes. It was like a mystery that I have yet to understand to date.

I called the attention of my class teacher and when she came, she said something might have entered my eyes. She helped me wash my eyes with water while my other classmates were just there waiting for me to open my eyes and see again, but I could not see anymore.

I visited many hospitals, and after diagnosis, the doctors told me that there was nothing wrong with my sight and that they did not see any defect, yet I could not see with my eyes. That was how I managed the situation till I got to SS2 in 2012 and could not go further.

So, I stopped going to school until 2018 when a group of evangelists came to my place and told me about Oji River Special Education Centre. They took me there where I took remedial courses using learning equipment such as typewriters and other technological tools and after that, I enrolled at St John of God Secondary School in Awka where I started from SS1 to complete my secondary education.”

Precious revealed that she delayed writng UTME until she reached 27 because she wanted to perfect her reading with study aids before enteriing the university.

In her words; “I took the SSCE, National Examination Council exam and the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination last year. My visual impairment delayed me and prompted me to enrol on remedial courses to perfect my use of reading with study aids.”