The schools exam watchdog has reported secondary schools in the UK are continuing to concentrate on Nazism and the Tudors, to the detriment of other topics.

The annual report of the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA), the Government’s curriculum authority, stated: ‘There has been a gradual narrowing and ‘Hitlerisation’ of post-14 history. The option choices made by schools and colleges in GCSE and AS/A level mean that the content of post-14 history continues to be dominated by topics such as the Tudors and the 20th-century dictatorships.’ Imminent guidelines will also suggest that children should also learn about the Cold War and German reunification and about Black British history. QCA chief executive Ken Boston commented: ‘The past 60 years have seen great events in Germany — the Cold War, the rise and fall of the Berlin Wall, reunification — and great achievements that too few English children are taught. Schools in England need to spend time teaching what happened in Germany after 1945.’ The watchdog also expressed worries that other subjects dominate at the expense of history.