The Conservatives have said that generations of children have been let down by "progressive" education policies.

Skills and "empathy" have been prioritised over bodies of knowledge, the shadow education secretary, Michael Gove said.

Gove told a teachers' conference that a Tory government would favour traditional styles of fact-based lessons over the "pupil-centred" learning pioneered in the 1960s.

He said: "This misplaced ideology has let down generations of children. It is an approach to education that has been called progressive, but in fact is anything but.

"It privileges temporary relevance over a permanent body of knowledge which should be passed on from generation to generation... we need to tackle this misplaced ideology wherever it occurs."

He followed up his speech with an interview in the Guardian in which he said: "If you come from a poorer household where you don't have your own bedroom, where the only printed material is the Daily Star, then school is the only place you learn, and progressive methods let you down".

Gove added: "Part of the problem with the way the history curriculum has developed is that it doesn't give people a proper understanding of how this country has developed.

"I don't think there has been such an emphasis on narrative and causality because there has been too much emphasis on empathy and skills."

However his comments have caused anger among teachers' unions with the NUT describing them as "absurd".

The union's general secretary, Christine Blower, said: "Gove's attack on child-centred learning is an absurd caricature of reality... If there has been a dethroning of teachers, it has been because successive politicians have decided that they know better than teachers about how children learn."

Schools minister Jim Knight said: "This artificial distinction between trendy teaching and learning dates, events and places bears no relation to what actually happens in today's classrooms."