The Education Secretary Michael Gove has called for schools to focus more on facts ahead of a review of the national curriculum in England.

Speaking to Today's Justin Webb, Mr Gove said that he wants to see a system which does not tell teachers "how to teach, it tells them what to teach". But he insisted: "I'm not going to be coming up with any prescriptive lists".

A panel of headteachers and academics is to begin work today to come up with a new version of the curriculum which will examine international best practise with the aim of allowing the UK to compete academically on the world stage.

When completed, the new National Curriculum for England and Wales will come into effect in 2013. Earlier on the programme Christine Blower, general secretary of the National Union of Teachers, said that individual schools should be able to set their own curriculums.

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