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Ivan Zhakata-Herald Correspondent

A TOTAL of 208 Zimbabwean teachers, more than 80 percent of those who sat, passed the written recruitment examinations to enable them to work in Rwanda and now face oral interviews next week.

The written online recruitment examinations were conducted on Wednesday and Thursday this week and the successful candidates have been invited for an oral interview from Tuesday next week in the final phase.

The online recruitment examinations were conducted in Gweru, Bulawayo, Masvingo, Chinhoyi and Harare and were jointly administered by the Ministry of Labour, Public Service and Social Welfare and Rwanda’s Ministry of Education.

In an interview, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Education in Rwanda Mr Charles Karakye said a total of 208 teachers passed the online recruitment interviews.

“We have just concluded the exams and 208 teachers participated for the set of exams. The next step is to do oral interviews. For those who participated, close to 80 percent passed the preliminary exam so we will get the final marks after doing the oral interviews which are scheduled for next week.

“We expected about 324 teachers then 260 attended. The memorandum of understanding we have with the Government of Zimbabwe is that Zimbabwe is open for business so we will be coming back to recruit more teachers,” he said.

Permanent Secretary for Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare Mr Simon Masanga said Zimbabwe was happy with how the recruitment process was unfolding.

“For this first phase we flighted an advert which people responded to. We shortlisted candidates and shared the list with Rwanda and they were happy and then came here to do tests which were done electronically. We had teams in Gweru, Bulawayo, Masvingo, Chinhoyi and Harare and the process went on very well.

“We went through all the candidates and the pass rate is very impressive. It is over 80 percent. Those who passed are going for oral interviews starting from Tuesday up to Friday next week. By the end of the month we are expecting the final results and after the results we then organise for the health checks where we will be assisted by the Ministry of Health and Child Care and the National Social Security Authority. Thereafter people will go for security vetting then they can leave for Rwanda.”

Mr Masanga said the teachers would have a pre-departure training session in Harare.

On December 23 last year, the Ministry of Education of Rwanda and the Ministry of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare of Zimbabwe signed a memorandum on exchange of educational personnel and expertise. This was followed by the issue of a Recruitment Manual on May 4 this year to guide the process of recruitment and employment of Zimbabwean teachers in Rwanda.

Following an agreed on plan of activities, Zimbabwe shared with Rwanda a list of 473 recommended candidates for Rwanda to register them in the e-recruitment system.

The next and most important stage was to administer online recruitment examinations which led to the confirmation of five provincial examination centres by Zimbabwe on August 1, 2022.