Ekiti State Governor, Dr Kayode Fayemi, said on Monday that over 19,000 applicants had applied online for the primary school teaching jobs advertised by the State Universal Basic Education Board.
The figure is expected to increase by the time the ongoing online application which began last Wednesday ends on Friday this week.
Fayemi, represented by the Head of Service, Mr Deji Ajayi, who spoke in Ado Ekiti during the 1st Ekiti State Arts and Culture Stakeholders’ Forum with the theme: “Arts and Culture for Economic Prosperity,” said the high unemployment rate was a statement on the need to develop the skills and capacities of our youths.
The governor said, “In the primary school teachers’ recruitment exercise we advertised recently, we want to employ 1,100 teachers and over 19,000 have applied on our website. This shows that government must develop the skills and capacities of our youths to be able to be on their own”.
Fayemi said that there were empirical statistics and evidence to prove that there was need for the state to enhance the skills and capacities of the youths since government alone could not solve the issue of endemic unemployment in the system.
He said that the state would explore the arts and culture sub-sector as part of the ways to boost the economy of the state.
He said, “We are going to organise Ekiti State Festival of Arts and Culture in December to enhance our capacities in crafts, dancing, weaving and other vocational areas of arts. We should not forget to teach our children those values that will make Ekiti to remember their heritage and sustain our culture as a people”.
The governor, who expressed his government’s desire to promote arts and culture in the state and reignite communication through Yoruba and Ekiti dialect, barred speaking of English by state officials and other participants at cultural and traditional functions.
He also promised that the government would build a new traditional rulers’ Secretariat for the monarchs in the state to make them more active and functional.
