Millions of pounds of extra funding could be poured into Oxfordshire schools if they meet ambitious new Government performance targets.

The county council has been set 12 targets by the Government and given £40,000 to help achieve them.

The authority will be given £1m for each target it meets, but unions have dismissed the scheme as a gimmick.

The announcement follows warnings that schools in the county face a cash crisis after Government money they were expecting to receive failed to materialise.

The Government blames local authorities for failing to pass money on -- a claim denied by Oxfordshire County Council.

The targets cover a range of policies aimed at driving up standards. They include:

Improving the percentage of pupils getting five GCSEs from 88 per cent to 94.5 per cent

Improving the percentage of Afro-Caribbean pupils getting five GCSEs from 26 per cent to 52 per cent, Pakistani pupils from 28 per cent to 47 per cent, and Bangladeshi pupils from 40 per cent to 42 per cent

Improving the percentage of pupils achieving level five or above at Key Stage Three from 64.7 per cent to 79 per cent in English, 70.5 per cent to 83 per cent in Maths, and 70.5 per cent to 78 per cent in Science

Cutting the number of excluded pupils from 49 to 45 per year

Improving the percentage of children in care getting five GCSEs from 22.5 per cent to 65 per cent.

Gillian Tee, the county's head of children's services, said: "We've produced an action plan to meet each target and we've used Government money to recruit a specialist team of advisers for secondary schools."

Mark Forder, the county branch secretary of the National Union of Teachers, said: "It's a gimmick, and a poor one at that.

"Our members are concerned about the exclusion target. We fear our members will be put under pressure to artificially keep a child in a class who should be receiving specialist education."