By Princewill Ekwujuru
In a renewed vigour and as part of its human capacity development  (HCD)agenda, the Delta State Government in collaboration with Direct Impact, a development consultancy firm that provides creative solution-driven advisory, managed by Mrs. Orode imevbore, the state government  this year approved a 3 Phase capacity building program for Delta State Secondary School Teachers as a part of its four year Teacher Development Program targeted at teachers at all levels.

Delta State government  aware of the need to take a holistic approach to meeting the challenges in the education sector, went beyond making a significant investment in the state’s education infrastructure (i.e. building and renovating schools), it also invested in improving the skills and knowledge of its teachers.

Consequently, the  8 Day Master Training Program  (MTP), first phase of the 3 phase program was flagged off in Warri in September, 2011, with two hundred and fifteen (215) Teachers from various Secondary Schools in attendance.

However, teachers from 25 Local Government Areas were selected with a focus on the following subjects: Mathematics, English, Physics, Chemistry and Biology. The choice of these subjects was guided by their importance in the secondary school curriculum.

The focus of the program is to improve the quality of teaching deliverables in public school classrooms in the state and thereby improve directly related student achievement.

The training provided teachers with certification in modern day pedagogical techniques that cut across curriculum,which exposed the teachers to modern methods of delivery in their core subject areas.

After the completion of the M TP, the best of its 215 participants was selected to train other teachers in the 2nd Phase of the program which is a statewide capacity building program for 1500 Secondary School teachers.

The 4 Day Program which represents phase 2  of the programme was 1500 teachers, which commenced on the 26th of September, 2011 in 10 training venues across Delta State.

The goals of the Master Training and Teachers Training Phases of the  program as typified by the organizers, Direct Impact, are: To improve the quality of teaching in the classrooms through the introduction of various modern pedagogical skills to the teachers with a view to minimizing failure rates and improving student achievement

within the state.

ii.    To build the capacity of  Teacher attending the Master Training program to be able to with minimum supervision train other teachers in the state in modern pedagogical skills that they have acquired with a view to achieving the same aim as listed in (i) above.

The capacity building program this year is however, not limited to teachers but also extends to School Principals, Chief Inspectors of Education and Directors of the Ministry of Education. The 3rd Phase of

the Program which kicked off on the 26th and 27th of September, 2011 respectively embraces the needs of this group.

Directors and School Principals participated in the 3 Day Leadership Program in Asaba which is specifically designed to build their ‘Leadership’ skill as well as ‘Project Planning and Management skills

while Chief Inspectors of Education for the 25 LGAs of the state will participate in a 5 Day Education Assurance Quality Management Program. The Quality Assurance Program for CIEs is designed by ESSPIN (DFID’s Education Sector Support Program in Nigeria) and is a highly specialized training workshop that is being delivered nationwide to build the capacity of  inspectors of education in the sector.