School chiefs have published new, lower targets for the company now running education in the district.

Education Bradford, which is part of the Serco corporation, earned only £8,450 of a possible £870,000 performance-related bonus in its first year.

It then lobbied to lower the tough targets in its ten-year contract, complaining they were unachievable.

Bradford Council, which pays the firm £36 million a year to run services, has agreed, and come up with new targets which it says gives Education Bradford "goals they can reach".

Today council chiefs insisted they were not a soft touch. Schools boss David Ward declared that he would resign if the company scored 100 per cent of its bonuses this year.

Coun Ward, the executive member for education, said he was confident the new targets still represented a tough challenge for Serco. The central aim, that low-performing Bradford should match national averages by 2006, has been maintained. But some of the milestones on the way have been lowered.

The 78 new targets, replacing 52 which have been scrapped, all focus on shrinking the gap currently separating Bradford's scores from national achievement rates.

To hit their targets, Serco must ensure pupils get higher results in tests at seven, 11, 14 and 16 each year, with a particularly rapid improvement between 2005 and 2006.

Describing this as "a more realistic approach" Mark Carriline, assistant chief executive at Bradford Council, said: "The rate of improvement should increase further into the contract, as the impact of the new provider on the culture and expectations for schools has a continuous effect."

The decision to move the goalposts has angered some critics who say the Council has "capitulated" to its powerful commercial partner.

Serco, a global corporation, has contracts to run arms plants, prisons, and transport services and its profits rose to £57 million in 2002. Education is only a tiny part of its portfolio.

Mark Pattison, managing director of Education Bradford, said: "The expectations on pupils across the country have changed dramatically over the past couple of years, and we need our targets to reflect that.

"This is not a case of lowering our aspirations, but of making sure we continue our drive to increase Bradford's performance to ensure long term benefits for all our pupils."

In 2002, after Education Bradford's first year of operation, exam results improved, but not enough, and only five of 52 targets were achieved.

The proposed new targets cover new areas including results for children in care, and the proportion of 11-year-old pupils gaining the higher Level 5,

They will be debated by members of the council's Education scrutiny committee at City Hall on Wednesday.

Ian Murch, of the Bradford branch of the National Union of Teachers (NUT) said: "Serco made an agreement to try to meet some targets, they've managed to wriggle out of that responsibility, and be paid more money."

He said he did not believe the aim of hitting the national average by 2006 would be met, but the company had "bought some time".