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Leonard Ncube, Victoria Falls Reporter
GREAT Zimbabwe University is training 22 special needs teachers from Swaziland after signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the government of Swaziland.

The Masvingo based university last week co-hosted the International Conference on Responses to Disability with Jairos Jiri Association with the aim of finding strategies to address the concerns of special needs people.

The conference was held in Victoria Falls.

The GZU offers four degree programmes related to disability issues.

In an interview after the conference, Acting GZU Pro-Vice Chancellor Dr Andrew Chindanya said the first group of 22 teachers from Swaziland was enrolled last year.

He said the institution was striving to be a centre for the alleviation of hardships facing people living with disabilities.

“The MoU was signed between GZU and the Swazi Ministry of Education and Training in 2014. It allows for the training of special needs education teachers for primary and secondary school,” he said.

Dr Chindanya said the Swaziland government, which pays full tuition fees for its students, chose to partner GZU because of its stance on disability issues.

“The Swazi government had been sending people overseas to train as educators in Special Needs Education but they have realised that our training programme is world class,” said Dr Chindanya.

He said the MoU enhances the reputation of the university as well as Zimbabwe’s educational standards internationally.

The GZU also has partnerships with two South African institutions – the University of KwaZulu Natal for staff development and exchange programmes as well as the University of Venda for collaboration in the training of teachers to teach Venda and Shangani.

@ncubeleon.