Nigeria : Federal Government may employ jobless graduates as teachers –Ngige
The Minister of
Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige, has said all youths in the country are
not entitled to the N5, 000 monthly stipend promised by the All
Progressives
Congress-led Federal Government.
The minister also
said the Federal Government intends to convert most of the unemployed graduates
to teachers in a bid to tackle graduate unemployment.
Ngige explained that
contrary to the widely-held belief that the N5,000 was meant for all youths,
only the vulnerable ones amongst them would benefit.
Ngige spoke at an
event held to mark the 5th anniversary of Bina Foundation and graduation
ceremony of its students in Enugu.
The Ministry of
Labour and Employment donated equipment worth N10m to the graduands.
Commending the
Foundation for uplifting the less privileged in the society, the minister went
ahead to shed more light on the payment of the N5,000 monthly stipend, which is
expected to commence in 2016.
He said, “The APC
government anchored delivery on three pillars; security of lives and property,
improving economy under which employment creation is the third sub-head, and
infrastructure revival.
“You can see that
employment creation is the main issue. We have heard people say we are waiting
for N5, 000. We did not say we are paying N5,000 to all the youth. We are
saying it is for the most vulnerable.”
Giving further
insight to how the government intends to tackle unemployment, Ngige said that
the Federal Government had budgeted N500bn for social safety needs in the
coming year.
“Most unemployed
graduates would be converted to teachers. The move is equally aimed at boosting
the education sector,” he said.
Ngige noted that
majority of the current crop of teachers in public schools were half-baked.
In the same vein,
the minister, who said the era of white-collar jobs was gone, added that the
government would pay serious attention to skill acquisition.
Ngige said, “For the
social safety needs, we have budgeted N500bn for the next fiscal year.
“We have captured
unemployed graduates. We are doing two things; we get those who read Law,
Engineering and other disciplines but do not have jobs. We would train them for
nine months and convert them to teachers.
“Most of our schools
have half-baked teachers. We want to redefine our schools and make them what
they are.
“We are also
building skill acquisition centres. We have 12 of them across the country. The
era of white-collar industry is gone.
“Nobody in Nigeria
will be unemployed, people will learn how to use their hands.”
He also disclosed
that the Federal Government would fight poverty in 2016, by giving aid to
people with special needs while children will get their own through the school
feeding programme.
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