SECONDARY schools are to get more than £6million from the Government to help raise classroom standards in the coming financial year.

A significant proportion of the cash -- nearly £1million -- is specifically targeted on problem schools.

Lancashire County Council is to get £5,377,000 for 2001/2002.

The main chunk of the money -- £3,334,000 -- is for general measures to improve standards across the entire range of schools.

But the county gets £930,000 for schools with poor exam results and those put on "special measures" because of low standards and facing the possibility of closure unless they improve.

It will be up to individual heads and governors to decide how to spend the cash.

There is a further £1,113,000 for the county to allocate to other schools which it believes need special help.

Blackburn with Darwen borough gets a total of £632,000.

The main £440,000 element is for general measures to boost standards across the board with an extra £45,000 targeted on poor performing and "special measures" schools. The money will be allocated by heads and governors.

There is also another £147,000 for the authority to spend on other schools it believes might benefit from extra help. Schools and education officials will be able to decide how best to spend the cash on issues such as bonuses to attract and retain good teachers, extra books and equipment, and recruit non-teacher learning support assistants and mentors to work with difficult pupils and tackle truancy and disaffection.

Low performing schools in the county and borough will get £70,000 each.

School Standards MInister Estelle Morris said: "While schools have targets and support from the school inspectorate Ofsted to help them achieve them, we also recognise that some schools face significant problems that do require extra resources.

"This may mean the opportunity to pay retention or recruitment bonuses to attract more teachers, particularly in hard to recruit subjects.

"It may mean more staff like mentors to work with pupils so that they can overcome their barriers to learning whilst at the same time freeing teachers to concentrate on teaching. It can mean extra books or resources."