Rwanda to receive nearly 500 Zimbabwean teachers by September

Rwanda is expected to receive nearly 500 Zimbabwean teachers by September this year, according to the Rwanda Education Board (REB).

REB Chief Executive Nelson Mbarushimana announced the development in his remarks at the ongoing Zimbabwe-Rwanda Trade and Investment Conference in Harare.

The conference, which is taking place for the second time, is organized through a partnership between ZimTrade – the Zimbabwean Trade Development and Promotion Organization – and the Rwanda Development Board (RDB).

During its inaugural edition which took place last year in Kigali, President Paul Kagame told a delegation from Zimbabwe that Rwanda urgently needed “quality teachers”.

Two months after Kagame’s request, a memorandum of understanding was signed between the two countries, the results of which have been awaited since last December.

“On the Memorandum of Understanding signed last year for an exchange of education personnel from Zimbabwe, we have so far started recruiting and we will have 477 teachers coming from Zimbabwe in September this year,” Mbarushimana said.

The teachers, he pointed out, would be placed in polytechnics and higher education institutions.

“We have set up a recruitment committee specifically for this and the process is done online,” Mbarushimana said.

Efforts to secure specific placements have been unsuccessful at press time, but The New Times understands the deal was drafted in two stages starting with focusing on the employment of Zimbabwean English and STEM teachers .