Twenty-eight struggling primary schools across the district are set to get a £1.5 million boost to help raise educational standards.

The additional funding was identified in Bradford Council's budget proposals in February this year.

A report outlining where the money could be channelled will be considered by the Young People and Education Improvement Committee on Monday before being decided by the executive the next day at City Hall.

The cash will be distributed over two years - £500,000 this school year and £1 million the next.

The district has rising standards of achievement in key stages two and four.

However, the aim to have every child taught in a school judged by Ofsted to be good or better by 2012 requires significant improvement throughout the district.

The areas causing greatest concern are the east and west areas of Bradford where primary schools continue to miss or have the potential to miss the expected targets. There are also a low number of schools in these areas which are able to provide extra support. It is proposed that 28 schools - 12 in east Bradford and 16 in west - are the focus for the additional funding.

The report asks that 70 per cent of the additional funding will be targeted to these schools to improve the quality of standards or to help the schools to be a partner in leading the development of other schools.

The other 30 per cent would be retained by Education Bradford for research, new posts, more resources in mathematics and language, the publication of updates on progress and improving the current support services.

Councillor Colin Gill, the Council's executive member for services to children and young people, said: "The Council's five-year vision for education is for every child to have the best possible start in life. Primary schools are therefore the focus of this additional funding.

"The aim of this extra support would be to achieve a number of goals by 2009 which include having no schools failing to provide at least an adequate quality of education for its pupils.

"Also, we want all schools inspected in the designated areas in 2008/09 to be deemed good or better.

"The retained funding would also give us the potential to distribute the funding across the district, according to the identified need, so that the benefits are experienced throughout Bradford."

An agreement between the Council and Education Bradford would be drawn up if the proposals were approved. This would enable the funding to be transferred and performance would be measured against agreed targets which would be monitored by the Contract Monitoring Board.

e-mail: jo.winrow @bradford.newsquest.co.uk