Teacher training courses will be reformed to put more focus on behaviour management and reading?Photo: ALAMYIn a speech today, he says he is "startled" by the narrowness of the topics pupils end up studying in history.
English exam boards only offer pupils the chance to study the "modern world" or the "schools history project", he claims.
"I'm an unashamed and unapologetic advocate for the central role of history in our curriculum," Mr Gove says.
"Which is why I'm genuinely worried that - despite the best efforts of brilliant history teachers, gifted academics and the television and publishing executives who've helped to popularise history - our curriculum and examinations system mean that children thirsting to know more about our past leave school woefully undernourished."
He cites a recent survey which found around half of English 18-to-24-year-olds are unaware that Nelson led the British to victory at the Battle of Trafalgar, and a similar proportion of young people did not know that the Romans built Hadrian's Wall.
Mr Gove said: "The number of pupils taking history GCSE has fallen by 8% since 1995. There's a stark class divide, with fewer than a third of 16-year-olds taking the subject in maintained schools, compared with half in independent schools.
"But more startling than the numbers of pupils opting - or failing to opt for - history GCSE is the narrowness of the topics pupils actually end up studying. The Government doesn't specify which periods of history GCSE should cover, but the English exam boards only offer two choices: either the 'Modern World,' or the 'Schools History Project'."
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