Rwanda has started massive recruitment of teachers from Zimbabwe after the two countries signed an agreement early this year that will see Kigali hire tutors from the southern African country to cover a skills gap.
According to a government official in Harare, 491 Zimbabwean teachers have been shortlisted for interviews that will be conducted in the next few days.
Zimbabwe’s Public Service ministry Permanent Secretary Simon Masanga said Rwanda had requested more tutors to bridge a longstanding skills gaps and language barriers.
“We are recruiting competent education personnel to be employed in Rwanda on job position under four categories: basic education, basic TVET (technical and vocational education and training), polytechnic and universities,” Mr Masanga said.
A recruitment manual was jointly agreed to facilitate the hiring. The minimum requirements for the educators was a bachelor’s degree and post graduate qualification.
“The successful candidates are expected to travel to Rwanda in September after undergoing pre-departure training by a team of experts from Zimbabwe and the embassy of Rwanda to ensure adequate orientation and requisite information is imparted to the Zimbabwean nationals prior to their deployment,” Mr Masanga added.
Rwanda President Paul Kagame announced that his country wanted to recruit teachers from Zimbabwe during the Trade and Investment Conference held in 2021. President Kagame indicated that the recruitment was to be treated as a matter of urgency in a bid to boost Rwanda’s education system.
Zimbabwe has thousands of qualified teachers that cannot be absorbed into its education system and the country has been pursuing deals with some African countries to export the labour.
The country has an unemployment rate of over 80 percent due to years of economic regression and has been negotiating deals with countries such as South Sudan to export some of its multitudes of unemployed university graduates.
