Education chiefs in Bermuda are to travel to England this week in search of new primary school teachers for the Island.

Permanent Secretary for the Education Ministry Michelle Khaldun will be in London interviewing 20 teachers to fill eight positions in the lower schools.

And Education Minister Senator Milton Scott will also be in London on other business this week and plans to meet the UK's director of the literacy strategy for a second time to work on a similar scheme for Bermuda's schools.

Mr. Scott said he had visited England previously to study it's education system and was impressed by what he had seen.

He said: "Ms Khaldun and I had the opportunity to meet the directors of both the literacy and numeracy strategy on our last visit to London and we were impressed with the results that they have achieved in their primary schools.

Hunt for teachers moves to Britain "The results for students leaving primary school in England have gone up ten percentage points in English and 13 percentage points in mathematics since the strategies were introduced in 1998.

"All primary school teachers in England have had literacy and numeracy training and are now equipped with a range of strategies to use in the classroom.

"Like the rest of the world, Bermuda is facing a shortage of teachers. The Ministry is taking a pro-active approach to making sure that where we cannot find suitable Bermudian teachers, we attract the best teachers from abroad.'' He said all of the teachers being interviewed this week come with training and experience of England's literacy and numeracy strategies and will be valuable additions to the Island's schools.

But Mr. Scott added: "We are also working to bring good Bermudian teachers into the system. We know that there are Bermudian teachers who have moved into different careers and we would like to encourage them back into the teaching profession.

"And we are looking at a proposal to provide opportunities to obtain certification for those who are not trained but would like to become teachers.''