EDUCATION bosses at East Lancashire's only unitary authority are celebrating today after being named among the country's top 10 most improving local education authorities.

Statistics published by the Department for Education and Employment show Blackburn with Darwen Council education authority achieved the fourth biggest improvement in England for English key stage two tests, taken by 10 or 11-year-old pupils in the final year of primary school.

And this year, 73 per cent of children in primaries across the borough reached the level required in the government's literacy strategy, compared with just 58 per cent who reached the same level in 1998.

The achievement puts Blackburn with Darwen fourth in a government league table of local education authorities that have achieved the biggest improvements between 1998 and 2000.

Tower Hamlets in London is the most improved, leaping from 51 per cent in 1998 to 67 per cent in 2000, with Tameside in Manchester and Rotherham in South Yorkshire also doing well.

Blackburn chairman of education Councillor Bill Taylor said it was excellent news.

He went on: "This is not a surprise because we specifically targeted this area of education and have provided extra resources for it.

"We realised there was something to do and we gave our schools some quite challenging targets -- but it looks as though they have really come up trumps!"