Education Secretary Michael Gove launched his latest crusade yesterday to break down the "Berlin Wall" between private and state schools.

Tougher tests, longer days and the teaching of classics are among the private school practices Mr Gove said could help state school kids keep pace with their privileged peers.

The Tory throwback pronounced his latest policy offensive in a speech at the London Academy of Excellence.

He said: "My ambition for the education sector is very simple - when you visit a school in England standards are so high all round that you should not be able to tell whether it's in the state sector or a fee-paying independent.

"Instead of reinforcing the Berlin Wall between state and private, we should break it down."

Teaching unions bemused by the cold war rhetoric reminded Mr Gove that his policies have frozen opportunities for school children.

ATL union leader Mary Bousted said: "Of course children benefit from a rounded education with extra-curricular activities.

"This was the policy of the last Labour government through its extended schools policy which provided funding for schools to provide sports, music, drama and other extracurricular activities before and after the school day.

"But one of the first acts of the coalition government was to end this funding."

Official Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) measures show state schools are already performing as well as those in the independent sector, Ms Bousted added.

NASUWT general secretary Chris Keates said "poverty and homelessness" were the main factors barring children from achieving academically.

"They cannot be brushed aside and ignored by politicians," she argued.

"Narrowing the curriculum, removing the entitlement for all children to be taught by a qualified teacher and increasing the financial barriers to access to further and higher education hits those from disadvantaged backgrounds hardest."