Wife of Delta State Governor, Dame Edith Okowa, has urged stakeholders in the educational sector to tackle key challenges facing teachers and the teaching professionals for an improved educational system.

Dame Okowa, who made the call on Tuesday during the flag-off ceremony of the Training Programme organised by the Delta State Teachers Professional Development Centre in Asaba, said that teachers need a change of mindset as a way of improving teaching and learning in the country.

She explained that for the educational sector to produce professionally trained teachers and sound syllabi, the challenges facing the sector must also be professionally addressed.

According to her, “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.”

Dame Okowa commended the state government for its proactive measures to ensure a sound and solid educational sector with the establishment of the Teachers Professional Development Centre to cater for the training and retraining of teachers in the state in line with global best practices.

She opined that with the training programme, the system would produce qualified, trained, competent, effective and efficient teachers.

The Governor’s wife called on teachers taking part in the training programme to put into practice what they would learn from the training for the benefits of their students.

In his welcome address, the Commissioner for Basic and Secondary Education, Mr. Chiedu Ebie, said that 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, will take part in the four modules of the training programme.

Mr. Ebie disclosed that the state government has instituted an Annual Teachers Award with a total cash prize of N7.5million for teachers and school heads in public, primary and secondary schools.