The Sunday Mail
Our returning students bring back important international professional experience which can contribute to organisational reform and better performance.
Back in 2010, when Zimbabwe’s Trade Policy Review was being concluded by the World Trade Organisation, Canada asked why Harare was taking long to implement its intention to conduct a comprehensive land audit and how it intended to accelerate this initiative.
In response, Zimbabwe said: “The main obstacle to acceleration of the initiative has been lack of resources which is both financial and the shortage of qualified surveyors.”
Note, the shortage of qualified surveyors!
A few months ago, the Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe released results of a mobile telecommunications costs study conducted by a foreign firm called Detecon Consulting.
Again, note that this research was done by a foreign firm because Zimbabwe did not have qualified people to do that!
There are many other skills and qualifications needed in Zimbabwe, which are, however, not locally trained for, or are offered in limited capacity.
Then we also heard the Zimbabwe National Students’ Union getting very euphoric a few months ago when the Presidential Scholarship Fund was fleetingly suspended due to resource challenges.
In its own words, the union said, “What is the scope of having scholarships for South African universities when we have universities here in Zimbabwe?… It is high time the scholarship is used to support students in local universities… By so doing, the Government will show that it has confidence in its universities here in Zimbabwe.”
Zinasu’s sentiments brought several questions to my mind.
Is Zimbabwe a Jack-of-all-trades when it comes to education and training? Can we competitively equip learners with just about every skill there is? Have we been blessed with the twin complements of absolute and comparative advantages?
Apparently, the accepted wisdom of the learned, or perhaps learning, Zinasu is “yes” to these questions.
If it were all about having “confidence” in local institutions, I don’t think countries like China, America and Britain would be sending their students to study abroad, including to African countries. In fact, we have European students studying at our local tertiary institutions.
Then what really is it about? What is it that compels well-to-do nations to send their students abroad?
China, for instance, has 400 000 students abroad! Don’t they, too, have confidence in their local institutions of higher learning?
China actually has a policy of “reform and opening to the outside world” and a strategy of rejuvenating its nation by relying on science and education.
In our case, we have the Presidential Scholarship Fund, as well as various facilities offered through the Higher and Tertiary Education, Science and Technology Development Ministry.
The ministry says: “The scholarship system has seen more than 4 000 Zimbabwean citizens being trained abroad in critical manpower shortage areas such as medicine, engineering, architecture, quantity surveying, computer sciences, actuarial sciences, law and many others.”
Notice that quantity surveying is included – the very skill cited to have impeded the land audit!
It is imperative to realise Zimbabwe has critical manpower shortage areas, just like any other country in the world, irrespective of the stage of development.
Some of these skills can only be acquired through learning in other nations. The sooner our youngsters from Zinasu realise that, the better.
Sending students to study abroad is also a very effective way of fostering the transfer of modern systems and ideas, technology transfer, quality improvements and other best practices.
Our returning students bring back important international professional experience which can contribute to organisational reform and better performance.
You cannot talk about innovation without new inspiration. These students do not only advance the economy, but also improve the country’s capacity and potential for innovation.
The pursuit of internationalism is also informed by the inevitable fact that the world is now a village. We are citizens of the world, and knowing just about Zimbabwe is not good enough. We have to understand the cultures and practices of other nations, even as we pursue the regional and global integration agenda.
The fact that there are initiatives at regional level to remove barriers for movement of both goods and people also calls for us to have international citizens in Zimbabwe.
Our Constitution has affirmed that in Section 12(2), which reads: “The State must promote regional and Pan-African cultural, economic and political cooperation and integration and must participate in international and regional organisations that stand for the peace and the well-being and progress of the region, the continent and humanity.”
Inasmuch as our local institutions play a vital role in equipping learners with the requisite skills, that is incomplete without skills we also acquire abroad. Skills we acquire abroad are like the other hand we need to make a sound clap in this economy.
Still on that note, I am of the opinion that our current tertiary education curriculum should be reviewed and aligned to the requirements of our local industries as well as our new economic architecture. The formal sector has been shrinking mercilessly, if the rate of company closures and job losses are anything to go by.
This has given us a growing informal sector, which has no concrete modus operandi on how to contribute to the economy. Take the Kurera/Ukondla Youth Fund, for instance, which the youths accessed for income-generating projects. A significant amount of these youths were graduates.
The fact that the fund was characterised by a very high rate of non-performing loans, up to 78 percent, is evidence to my submission that our graduates are not compatible to the current economic architecture.
There is, therefore, need for local manufacturers to partner high and trade schools, and colleges and universities to train people with the right skills sets. I cannot overemphasise the need for more vocational training and apprenticeships.
Back to my issue of the day.
I think the private sector also has a big role to play in fostering the training of students abroad. Currently, we have very few private sector companies giving out such loans.
However, the irony is that most of these companies benefit from employing the students that would have been funded to go and study abroad by Government. It would be important for private sector players to identify their areas of critical manpower shortage and offer scholarships to students to go and study those fields abroad.
The problem with students funded to study abroad is that they may not return home, being lured by the opportunities in their countries of study. This is not a Zimbabwean problem only, however. It is a mutual problem faced by all countries.
Although bonding sometimes ameliorates the risks, it is still not effective. The Zimbabwe Government bonds returning students for three years. Some might endure those three years of bondage, but return abroad immediately afterwards.
It would be important for Zimbabwe to learn from her friend, China, on how to integrate returning students with a view to unlocking their potential in turning around the fortunes of the economy.
Faced with the challenge of failure by students learning abroad to return home at the end of their stints, China established what it calls “pioneer centres for returning students”.
The purpose of these is to incentivise students who have finished their studies abroad to return and set up businesses in China. And China has more than 60 such centres.
We stand to benefit more from our students abroad if we adopt this concept. We have the highest literacy rate in Africa, something we should be proud of.
However, for us to foster enhanced growth and development for our economy, there is need to develop every economically-active Zimbabwean with skills that are particularly relevant to the economy.
