AN army of foreign teachers is being hired by the region's schools struggling to cope with staff sickness and major recruitment problems.

Figures obtained by The Northern Echo reveal that more than 350 teachers are on long-term sick leave from schools in the North-East and North Yorkshire - enough to staff four large comprehensives.

Faced with such a chronic lack of personnel - and huge difficulties attracting teachers away from the affluent south - the region's schools are looking to foreign staff.

More and more heads are turning to countries such as Canada, Spain and Australia for their new recruits.

Most foreign teachers come to this country via teaching agencies, but some British teachers have been known to go on their own recruiting missions abroad.

Although they are qualified to teach in their own countries, many foreign teachers do not have Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) needed for the British education system.

But schools are so desperate for staff they are willing to put them through the QTS, a costly process that can take between one and two years.

The problem is exacerbated by the number of staff off through long term illness.

Newcastle has 97 teachers classed as long-term sick, with continuous absence of seven weeks or more and making up more than a half of all sick leave.

A city council spokeswoman said they were beginning to see teacher shortages in music and modern languages, and more recently with English teachers.

North Yorkshire has 80 teachers on long-term sick, out of a teaching staff of 5,000 full-time equivalents, and County Durham has 81 from a workforce of 4,423.

Long-term absence accounts for 20 teachers in Darlington, 15 in Redcar and Cleveland, 37 in Sunderland and 21 in South Tyneside.

To alleviate shortages Tanfield Comprehensive, in Stanley, County Durham, is considering taking on two Canadian teachers.

The school has advertised for maths, geography and English staff for September, but so far it has only received one application.

Advertising costs hundreds of pounds and union representatives in the North say schools are lucky if they gain enough candidates to interview.

The problems headteachers face are exacerbated by the desperate lack of supply teachers.

Tanfield's deputy head Eric Fisk said: "There's a whole market now in supply teachers, and teacher vacancies and various agencies have set themselves up acting as agents for teachers abroad.

"It's not proving difficult to get them as in other areas, such as nursing. Our salaries are reasonably good compared with other countries, and a lot of young teachers are using it as an opportunity to travel."

The school has already taken on a teacher from Australia, Steven Reynolds, and staff are pleased they have gained a well rounded individual who can bring an added cultural dimension to pupils' education.

"He's a very good teacher," said Mr Fisk, who is a national council member for the National Association of Head Teachers (Naht) in the North-East.

He said at the union's recent national conference that two members from London could not attend because they had gone to Australia on a teacher recruitment campaign.

Brian Garvey, North Yorkshire national executive member of the NASUWT, said: "Schools are so desperate. The local education authorities are going further and further in their search for staff.

"Ireland is very popular because, in the North in particular, they have a surplus of teachers. Spain also seems to becoming more popular as a target."