The UK Government through DfID works closely with several United Nations organisations, including the United Nations Development Programme, to deliver basic services to the poorest people in Zimbabwe. There are no reliable figures about the number of teachers who have emigrated from Zimbabwe since 2005. However there is enough anecdotal evidence to suggest that large numbers of qualified teachers have left Zimbabwe in the past eight years, thereby adversely affecting the provision of quality education in Zimbabwe as underlined by an increase in the ratio of trained teachers to pupils and declines in levels of learning among pupils. The Government of Zimbabwe have indicated that around 20,000 teachers have returned to teaching since the signing of the global political agreement in 2008. It is unclear how many of these 20,000 had emigrated since 2005.

Between 2011 and 2015 DfID is providing substantial financial and technical support to improve education opportunities in Zimbabwe, including through the second phase of the Education Transition Fund (ETF II) managed by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). A key element of ETF II is to improve the quality of teaching, including through enhanced training and support to teachers which should help to reduce the likelihood of further emigration of teachers and improve learning outcomes among pupils.