Schama to advise ministers on education

The historian Simon Schama became the latest big brain to be recruited by the Government yesterday when the Education Secretary, Michael Gove, announced that the academic and TV documentary maker would advise ministers on teaching.

Professor Schama said he hoped to instil "excitement and joy" into the curriculum as pupils connected with their ancestry.

"A return to coherent, gripping history is not a step backwards to dry-as-dust instruction," he said. "It represents a moment of cultural and educational rediscovery."

Professor Schama recently asked David Cameron to consider improvements to history-teaching in a newspaper interview.