So popular is the report of the advisory committee on culture creativity and education that 10,000 copies have already been snapped up and astonished civil servants have been obliged to order a reprint.

Ken Robinson, professor of arts education at Warwick University,who chaired the committee, told a conference in London last week that he had attended 67 meetings on the report. “The response has been fantastic. Teacher unions, employers, science and industry - they’re all behind it,” he said.

The huge report with 59 recommendations was given a subdued send off in July by the education and culture departments which commissioned it.

But Professor Robinson and his high-powered committee are determined to get their message heard. The members include conductor Sir Simon Rattle, Nobel prize-winner Sir Harry Kroto, Sir Claus Moser of the Basic Skills Agency, Lord Stone, managing director of Marks and Spencer, and Dame Tamsyn Imison, head of Hampstead school.

All our futures: creativity, culture and education argues that “no education system can be world-class without valuing and integrating creativity, in the curriculum, in management and leadership and without linking this to promoting knowledge and understanding of cultural change and diversity”.

It calls for a radical rethink of the school curriculum by removing the distinction between the core subjects and the rest, an improvement in arts teacher training and partnerships between schools and the wider cultural and business communities.

“All our futures” is available from DFEE Publications, PO Box 5050, Sudbury, Suffolk C010 6ZQ