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The growing interest by foreign countries to recruit qualified professionals from Zimbabwe, especially teachers, is a show of confidence in the country’s education system, a labour expert said yesterday.

A number of foreign countries have recently expressed interest to recruit skilled personnel from the country, with Angola being the latest to request for English teachers, while Qatar wants other professionals.

Already, Zimbabwe has a bilateral arrangement with Rwanda for teachers to go and work in that country.

Zimbabwe Teachers Association president Richard Gundani told New Ziana that the countries that were demanding labour from Zimbabwe recognised that the country was ahead in terms of education standards while it was also an opportunity for local professionals to go and learn what was happening in other countries.

“For us in education, it is a learning experience because you know that when we are locked in our own country, we are limited in terms of experience. So it is an opportunity to go and get more experience,” he said.

“However, it is important that the bilateral agreements be structured in such a way that when these professions come back, they should come back and rejoin their professions so that they can now add value by bringing back their experience to improve the practice within our country.”

Mr Gundani said the export of professionals also created space for newly trained personnel who would have failed to secure local placements.

There were however, a downside to such arrangements, he said.

“Obviously the downside is that these countries prefer the best among those professionals, so there is an element of brain drain as some of the best professionals are being taken away from this country,” he said.

Also if the contracts were not structured well, the professionals ended up in worse situations in terms of labour standards and even remuneration, he explained.

Sometimes the professionals were not given adequate information and they ended up in situations where, for example, accommodation, schools for their children and other basics were too expensive, said Mr Gundani. – New Ziana.

“So, it is important that the Government assists these professionals in securing agreements which protect them and which also empower them by giving them options should they go there and not be happy and wish to return home.” —New Ziana