RECOGNITION is due to Blackburn with Darwen Council's achievement of winning "beacon" status for the town's schools after running them as an independent education authority for just 18 months when, among other accomplishments, its schools now have 11-year-olds who rank among the highest achievers in the country.
Contrast this with the state of affairs two years ago when Blackburn with Darwen was on the brink of unitary status - with seven schools officially labelled as "failing" and standards generally so low that it stood to be among the bottom five authorities in the country.
Tory education spokesman Coun John Williams may be right to call for an improvement on its present standing of 34th bottom out of 116 education authorities, but, nevertheless, it has come a long way in a short time, can indeed show others how to make such progress and stands to do even better still.
Yes, well done!
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