Serious flaws in the forecasting of pupil numbers are to be tackled in another major overhaul of education in Bradford.

The errors have left some schools in dire financial straits and teachers' uncertain about their jobs.

A 41-point action plan has been drawn up by education chiefs to address major criticisms made by school watchdog Ofsted in January.

In the report Ofsted inspectors said there were "significant inaccuracies" in the figures which are key to school re-organisation and building programmes.

The predictions sparked fury among campaigners last year, when seven schools were threatened with closure because of unfilled places and later reprieved.

Unions have also claimed flawed calculations could mean unnecessary job losses among teachers.

The Council has now pledged to revise its planning, review its methods, communicate more effectively and take school and other local information into account.

Inaccurate forecasts came in for the strongest criticism in the findings of the inspectors in their report, published five months ago, which concluded that the standard of education in Bradford was still unsatisfactory.

The Council has now produced the action plan to tell the Government how it intends to tackle the issues identified by the inspectors .

One of the most controversial issues highlighted was the admission criteria at voluntary-controlled and community-controlled schools, which many parents see as the single most important problem to be addressed.

In response, the Council said it will review policies and produce clearer information for parents on how it deals with admission selection for over-subscribed schools.

The sensitive problem of extended holiday abroad for some youngsters is also on its action list and there is also a proposal to appoint a co-ordinator to deal with a behavioural improvement programme.

A support group for parents of problem children is also included in the action plan which goes to the Council's executive committee next Tuesday.

Today, Councillor David Ward, executive committee member for education, said the 41-point action plan tackled what in the past had been "no go" areas and was the widest action plan ever prepared for the service.

"Bradford has had a lot of action plans in the past but I believe people will recognise that behind this is a real commitment to making our education service one of the best in Britain," he said.

In 2000, Ofsted inspectors identified Bradford LEA as one of the worst in Britain and said it was miserably failing the district's pupils.

The function of the LEA is now greatly reduced and its schools are now jointly run with a private company Serco, trading as Education Bradford.

In the latest Ofsted report, inspectors concluded that although there were problems, there were many improvements and great potential for more.

The Council's director of education, Phil Green, said: "We are working closely with Education Bradford and the schools to continue improvements as we head towards our targets of meeting national averages in exam results by the summer of 2006."

The response deals with reluctance of schools to report racist incidents and ask for advice and the Council will set ambitious but achievable attainment goals for schools.

But improvements were also noted by the Ofsted inspectors and there are proposals to build on them in the highly detailed 86-page response.

Stuart Herdson, Bradford branch secretary of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers and a member of the union's National Executive, said: "Schools have traditionally under reported racist incidents because they don't want bad publicity. I would be more in favour of protecting staff and pupils."

He added: "This action plan is very much what I would expect.

"You are not going to change things in a year if you start at a very low point. It takes time to lift a city and population of this size.

"It can only be achieved by the attitude of the Government over-funding."

The authority is bound by law to prepare a written action plan following an Ofsted report.

The Government will closely monitor the implementation of the action plan and the first progress report will go to the Council's executive committee in September.

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