CHILDREN who live within East Lancashire's ethnic and travelling communities are being targeted in a £162million government push to raise standards in education.

Lancashire County Council and Blackburn with Darwen Council will receive almost £4million in Ethnic Minority and Traveller Achievement Grants for the year 2000/2001.

Schools minister Jacqui Smith said the extra money represented a seven per cent increase on the amount of money made available in grants for this school year and was aimed at helping those particularly at risk of underachieving and pupils where English was not the first language.

But Blackburn with Darwen Council - whose LEA will get around £1.2million towards a £2million programme - has expressed concern that its grant has fallen in percentage terms.

Jill Baker, assistant director of education and training, said: "We welcome the grant which is very important in our commitment to raising achievement.

"However if we want to maintain the provision of these services to the same level we have previously provided then we will have to find additional resources from local authority funds as the grant is less in percentage terms than in previous years."

Lancashire County Council's LEA will receive a grant of more than £2.6million before adding a further £1.9million to its £4.5million scheme. Miss Smith said: "The grant will largely go direct to schools so that head teachers can use it where it is needed most - to employ more teachers and teaching assistants, particularly improving language skills and to work with the local community."

As part of the scheme schools will have to set attainment targets for minority ethnic and traveller pupils and monitor their progress closely.

Miss Smith went on: "While many Asian children do better than others in exams, achievement in other minority communities is far too weak.

"It is vital that minority ethnic and traveller children have the same opportunities to fulfil their potential as everyone else and that is why we are targeting their need specifically."

The government is also planning to provide schools with guidelines on raising achievement among ethnic minorities and have already piloted summer study schemes for children from these groups.

Ofsted inspectors will be expected to report on how schools cater for children from these backgrounds.

A county council spokesman said: "We welcome this early announcement and will be looking at the implications for Lancashire's innovative traveller education service and work to promote ethnic minority achievement."

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