AN EDUCATION boss from Blackburn has been given a key role in deciding who should be the next to benefit from cash to raise classroom standards.

Mark Pattison, director of education at the town hall, has been invited to sit on a government assessment panel to advise ministers on the shortlisting of 50 local authorities become Education Action Zones.

Blackburn with Darwen Council was among the first areas in the country to be awarded EAZ status, which aims to link local schools with businesses to help raise standards.

Earlier this year, Prime Minister Tony Blair and Education and Employment Secretary David Blunkett, visited Our Lady and St John School, Blackburn, to see for themselves the work going on in the borough's EAZ.

While he was in Blackburn, Mr Blair announced the second round of EAZs, which he said would have more of an emphasis on communities. It is that second set of EAZs which Mark Pattison will now be involved with. He said: "This is a feather in our cap and recognition of the work we are doing in Blackburn and Darwen, both in our own education action zone and elsewhere in the borough, to raise standards and improve attainment."

Coun Bill Taylor, chairman of the borough's education and training committee, said: "Although we were a new unitary authority, less than six months old at the time, we took up the challenge to become one of the country's first education action zones.

"We were successful in our bid and the programme has brought opportunity and innovation for the 22 schools in the zone and beyond.

"For our director Mark Pattison to be asked to help with the task of selecting the next round of EAZs is a great fillip for him and demonstrates the high regard in which Blackburn with Darwen Council is held nationally."

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