Paul Osuyi, Asaba

Wife of Delta State governor, Mrs. Edith Okowa, has urged stakeholders in the education sector to tackle key challenges facing teachers and teaching profession for an improved educational system.

Mrs. Okowa made the call while flagging off a capacity-building programme for 6, 504 principals, vice principals and some officials of the state Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education and its agencies.

The training is following the commencement of construction of the state Teachers Professional Development Centre (TPDC) in Owa-Oyibu, Ika North East Local Government Area.

 Mrs. Okowa said teachers need mindset change so as to improve teaching and learning in the country, noting that the challenges of the educational sector must be addressed professionally.

“If we must move forward in the educational sector, key challenges facing teachers and teaching must be professionally addressed. One of such challenges in Nigeria is the phenomenon of low-teacher quality,” she said.

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She commended the state government for its proactive measures to ensure a sound and solid educational sector with the establishment of the TPDC to cater for the training and retraining of teachers in the state in line with global best practice.

She said with the training programme, the system would produce qualified, trained, competent, effective and efficient teachers, and called on participants to put into practice what they would learn from the training to good use for the benefits of their students.

Commissioner for Basic and Secondary Education, Mr. Chiedu Ebie, said the training programme was meant to optimise the performance of teachers in the state and enhance teaching and learning.

He explained that a total of 6,504 teachers, school heads and personnel of the ministry and its boards and agencies would take part in the four modules of the training programme.

Ebie disclosed that the state government had instituted an annual teachers award with a total cash prize of N7.5 million for teachers and school heads in public, primary and secondary schools.