Schoolchildren should learn about the contributions that ethnic minorities have made to history, the education secretary has said.

Damian Hinds said it was right for youngsters, at both school and university, to be taught a wider variety of history than they had been before.

But he said it was important that children were still taught about British history so that lessons could be learned from the mistakes of the past.

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Mr Hinds said: “It is also right, though, and proper, that these days, not just at university but at school, children learn a wider variety of history than we used to when we were at school.

Diversity in history

“They learn about people who we didn’t learn about when we were at school. There’s no reason why we shouldn’t have learned about them - we just didn’t because the curriculum was narrowed in certain ways.

“And I think it is a good thing that it is broad, and it is a good thing that people of all sorts of backgrounds, and all sorts of ethnicities and so on, hear about people from a diverse range of backgrounds and the contribution they have made to history.”

Mr Hinds was speaking to media after addressing the annual conference of the NAHT headteachers’ union in Telford.

His comments come after a Universities UK report last week said some university leadership teams were not representative of the student body and some curricula did not reflect minority groups’ experiences.

It added that a greater focus was needed from universities, working with their students, on ensuring that black and minority ethnic students have a good sense of belonging at their university.