Footballer Troy Deeney has written an open letter to the Government, demanding the national curriculum includes more history and experiences of black, Asian and ethnic minorities in Britain.

Deeney who was a driving force behind Premier League players' decision to take the knee before matches in their fight against racism believes the current curriculum is failing children from ethnic minorities.

Deeney launched a petition and released an open letter to Nadhim Zahawi, the secretary of state for education, revealing the results of a YouGov survey he commissioned.

Deeney says it showed the majority of British teachers, who took part in the study, believed the school system has a racial bias, while only 12% felt empowered to teach diverse topics.

"I believe the current system is failing children from ethnic minorities," the 33-year-old told Zahawi in the open letter. "I urge you to review this topic again."

A department for education spokesperson said the curriculum "offers pupils the opportunity to study significant figures from black and ethnic minority backgrounds and the contributions they have made to the nation".

Zahawi also responded, tweeting "Troy, thank you for raising this important issue. It would be good to discuss this with you and I will ask my team to reach out."

In June last year, during a parliamentary debate on the teaching of diversity, then skills minister Gillian Keegan said the government has made the teaching of a unit called "ideas, political power, industry and empire: Britain, 1745-1901" compulsory at Key Stage 3 (ages 11-14) but admitted the individual topics required within the unit were not set out.

She added: "The reformed history curriculum includes teaching pupils the core knowledge of our past (It) does not set out how topics within the subjects, should be taught. We believe that teachers should be able to use their own knowledge to determine how they teach pupils.

"At the same time we believe that good teaching of history should always include the contribution of black and minority ethnic people to Britain's history, as well as the study of different countries and cultures."