A DARWEN councillor has urged “vast improvements” to be made to education after figures showed the Sudell ward had one of the lowest percentage of GCSE pass rates in the borough.

Just 29 per cent of pupils living in the area achieved five GCSEs at grades A* to C in 2008, ahead only of Shadsworth with Whitebirk in Blackburn, which had a pass rate of 26 per cent.

The average A* to C pass rate in Darwen and Rural is 43 per cent, the borough average is 45 per cent, and the England average is 47 per cent.

However, since Darwen Aldridge Community Academy opened, exam rates do appear to be improving significantly. The academy is working to help pupils attain more, irrepsective of which ward they live in.

Meanwhile, Sudell coun-cillor and former Moor-land governor Roy Davies has passed his concerns on to borough leaders.

He said: “We are looking for a vast improvement. This is a much deprived ward and there are a lot of factors contributing to the low achievement.

“The main school the kids go to round here is the Darwen Aldridge Community Academy. I couldn’t be more committed to that school because my own son goes there. It’s only been open for 12 months and it takes a long time to turn things around, but we must put much more empahasis on the school getting results.

“I want to look at inspiring the youngsters. The council has just got £450,000 from the Government to do just that and I will be working to see that it is spent on initiatives that make kids want to work hard and do well.”

Figures for each ward for 2009 are yet to be published.

Darwen Academy took over from Darwen Moorland last September when its pass rate for A* to C was 31 per cent. Since the Academy opened, 68 per cent of pupils have achieved GCSE results graded A*-C.

Principal Brendan Loughran said: ‘We have seen significant progress over a small period of time with our first Year 11 cohort and the recent examinations have resulted in over two-thirds of our students achieving the equivalent of five or more GCSE passes at grade C or better.

"The students deserve praise for adapting to their new school.”