Asian Muslim fathers in Bradford are to be helped become better role models in a bid to raise the educational achievements of their children.

The Home Office Family Policy Unit is funding a position for a project worker at the Children's Society charity.

The post, for a male worker who speaks and writes Urdu, will help fathers access services such as English language classes, understand the school system, and help them become more involved in education.

Chris McKay, project leader, said research had been carried out in the Thornbury and Bradford Moor areas.

"We organised a lot of after-school activities and found that there were no fathers coming to any of them. We wanted to know why this was happening, as we were sure that it wasn't an area of single mothers," he said. "We applied to the Home Office for funding and commissioned someone to do some research.

"What we found through the research was that Asian Muslim fathers did want to participate in their children's education but didn't know how to."

Syed Razwan, who completed the six-month research project found a number of themes.

He said: "The research showed that most fathers were working shifts. Some of the fathers were migrants from Pakistan and Bangladesh who had a number of obstacles to overcome. Because they had no recourse to public funds they were forced into low-paid jobs and had to work long hours.

"There was also a language difficulty. Often the fathers don't have time to go to English classes because they are busy working. They get into a cycle where they are working long hours then find that they are in environments where they don't need English. Often when fathers do want to go to classes they find they are geared towards teaching women rather than classes just for men." Mr Razwan said: "They said the main thing to come out was that although traditionally women were the main carers in the family, the fathers were keen to redress the balance."

Alyas Karmani, a freelance consultant and father-of-three said it was important that Muslim fathers played a part in bringing up their children.

"The achievement of Pakistani and Bangladeshi boys is well below the national average at about 20 or 30 per cent attainment of grades A to C at GCSE level."