AN afterschool club set up to help Pakistani boys reach their potential could be extended across East Lancashire after being heralded a massive success.

The Pakistani Achievement Forum, based in Randal Street Mosque, Blackburn, was created following a review of the boys’ exam results which revealed they consistently performed less well than those of Indian origin. The forum developed a model to motivate the teenagers to get the best exam results, with the help of mosque leaders, Blackburn with Darwen Council and the mosque school’s lead headteacher Majid Ditta.

The model has the youngster supported by his parents and school alongside extra help from the mosque which teaches the curriculum through religion.

For example the children were taught about the holy pilgrimage, or Hajj, but they also had to work out the dimensions of the Kaaba, the building at the centre, of Mecca. Pupils said this style of relating the teaching of subjects through religion had helped their understanding.

Beardwood Humanities College student Gohar Hussain, 14, from Blackburn, said: “I think it is excellent. It has helped my education and I understand many things I never understood in school. I have got good teachers in school but here we learn extra things which help. Before I never thought about the future but now I want to be an architect.”

Ahad Mohammed, 13, from Blackburn, who is also a pupil at Beardwood, said: “I wasn’t doing as well as I could have been but coming to the school has made me focus.”

Majid Ditta, lead headteacher at Randal Street Mosque School, said: “We have seen improvements in their education already from last year’s exam results.

"We wanted to steer the children away from the national trend. The school has not only taught them about religion and education but about respect.”