Blessings Chidakwa — Herald Reporter
A DELEGATION from India is in the country to offer study opportunities to Zimbabweans through more than 500 scholarships in disciplines including sciences, law and humanitarian fields.
One of India's leading academic consultants, Global Arcus, yesterday met officials from the Ministry of Youth Empowerment, Development and Vocational Training to share notes on how the two nations can collaborate on education exchange programmes.
A youth symposium for guidance and counselling on the courses on offer in India is scheduled for this week.
In an interview in Harare, Global Arcus director, Ms Pragati Srivastava, said the purpose of the visit was to create awareness on the Indian education system.
"We have started this campaign to create awareness on education amongst the youth. We are visiting for the first time. However, we have been creating awareness through social media platforms. We have many students from Zimbabwe.
"Every year, 200-300 students from Zimbabwe come to study in India. Every year the figures are rising, so this year we are expecting 500 to 2 000 Zimbabwean students," she said.
Ms Srivastava said they were targeting Zimbabwean students as they were "very disciplined" and spoke English fluently.
"We are offering scholarships to them to come and study in India. We are offering food and accommodation and tuition. Everything is included."
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Ms Srivastava said the scholarships were for diplomas, undergraduate degrees, masters' degrees and PhDs, adding that some students were also getting free flight tickets. The universities awarding scholarships were top-notch and recognised globally.
Local partner, Mr Tendai Makiwa, said the engagement between the Indian team and Zimbabweans, including the Government and the banking sector, would make the processing of scholarships faster.
"The issue that was mainly affecting our students is that, with many people being involved in the informal sector when you get to the embassy, they require a sponsorship letter or proof of income.
"This will be addressed as the team will visit the banks to smoothen the processes. Together with the team, we are also visiting the Indian embassy in an effort to ease the issuing of student visas," he said.
Mr Makiwa said they were also proposing exchange programmes, where Zimbabwean students would visit India and vice versa.
