Wanted: Irish teachers to turn round Big Apple's schools

New York education bosses are appealing for Irish and British teachers to come and work in the city’s “failing” schools.

Recruiters have already put adverts in newspapers and plan to visit Ireland, London and Scotland later this month to interview teachers interested in transferring to the US.

It is part of a drive to hire 11,000 teachers for struggling schools primarily in run down areas of the Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens, the New York City Department of Education says.

Successful applicants will be employed in some of the toughest schools in the US, where violence against teachers is commonplace.

They are targeting maths, science, English and foreign languages teachers.

Teachers accepted for the scheme will also be provided with temporary accommodation while they find housing and will be given help organising their visas.

But possible postings include the Lafayette High School in Brooklyn were a police Swat team was stationed last week, following a string of attacks by pupils.

Seven students have been taken to hospital in 26 serious fights and assaults in the school since the start of the academic year, an average of one violent incident every three days.

Teachers and administrators have also been beaten and robbed in the stairwells by pupils carrying knives, sharpened screwdrivers, brass knuckles and pool balls knotted into slings.

City officials have dispatched special security teams to seven schools in New York this year because of rising pupil violence.

Schools Chancellor Joel Klein was last year forced to launch Operation Safe Schools, a crackdown on students who are beyond control.

“The teachers will be working at failing schools where conditions can be difficult,” said a spokeswoman for the NYC Department of Education.

She said it was too early to say how many teachers it hoped to recruit.