GOVERNMENT has started working on bilateral arrangements with Rwanda to export local teachers to the east-central African nation.
This follows Rwandan President Paul Kagame’s call for the
importation of Zimbabwean teachers.
Speaking during the Zimbabwe-Rwanda Investment and Trade
Conference in Kigali last week, President Kagame said his country was willing
to absorb as many Zimbabwean teachers as the country could offer.
He called on the two nations to work closely and provide
teachers to his country.
Rwanda is one of Africa’s fastest rising economies and
presents Zimbabwe with a lot of partnership opportunities.
Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare Minister
Professor Paul Mavima said Government was excited to co-operate with Rwanda on
exportation of teachers.
“I’m really glad that the Rwandan President has called on
us to provide teachers. We are going to work as quickly as possible to come up
with that bilateral arrangement.
And this one would serve as a model that we can use in
other areas. We have medical professionals who are going abroad, we have social
welfare officials who are going abroad, we have engineers who have gone to many
places,” said Prof Mavima.
“We need to have a formal programme that makes sure that
our country is benefiting from human capital development. By the way, the
development of human capital is a national responsibility. We put money into
training teachers, nurses and engineers, and we should, as a country, also
benefit when our people go abroad.”
He said countries such as China and Cuba, among other
nations, benefit from exporting their skilled workers.
He said through a bilateral agreement, Zimbabwe could earn
foreign currency through taxing professionals working in other countries.
“This would be the first of its kind so that next time when
we export our human capital, we would already have a model which we can base
on. It’s unlike in situations where people migrate individually and go to other
countries.
This time it’s going to be a bilateral arrangement; we will
know how many teachers we have sent there,” he said.
“We will also know what conditions of service they are
going to work under, what kind of protection they have, what kind of taxation
system, how do we have a system that part of their taxation in Rwanda benefits
Zimbabwe in a formal manner.”
Prof Mavima said he was confident that Zimbabwean teachers
will shine, as they have proved in other nations.
“This is why Rwanda is now saying give us your teachers
because they are good. But Botswana is also running on Zimbabwean teachers,
South Africa is running on Zimbabwean teachers, Namibia is running on
Zimbabwean teachers. When you go to the United Kingdom, you find that when they
do their annual competitions for teachers,
Zimbabwean teachers win there. I was surprised two to three
years ago when I went to the UK, a Zimbabwean teacher had actually won £1
million for being the best teacher in that country,” said Prof Mavima.
He said while exporting skills was necessary, the country
should also work towards retaining some skilled labour.
“We also need to take care of the motivation of teachers.
We have to deal with the conditions of service of teachers as our economy
grows. We need to make sure that our teachers are well remunerated so that we
continue our human capital development,” he said. Chronicle
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