The Education Secretary said all children would be given a “broad and balanced” timetable to equip them with the core knowledge needed to proceed onto further study and the workplace.
A slimmed down curriculum – around half the length of the current version introduced under Labour – sets out the topics state school teachers in England should cover between the age of five and 14.
The document features the core subjects of English, maths and science in depth plus shorter specification for history, geography, languages, art, physical education, citizenship, computing, music and design and technology.
In English, pupils should recite poetry by heart in the first two years, master around 200 complex spellings by 11, read pre-1914 literature and one Shakespeare play at secondary school and hone their debating and public speaking skills.
Left-handed pupils should also “receive specific teaching to meet their needs”, it said.
Science lessons introduce pupils to evolution at the age of nine for the first time and require pupils to build electric circuits and experiment with materials before the end of primary school. Climate change is a topic at secondary school.
In maths, pupils are introduced to fractions at the age of five, 12 times tables by nine, algebra at 11 and financial education at secondary school. Personal finance is also covered in a new citizenship curriculum.
Controversially, the European Union has been removed from a new geography curriculum, although it does focus on subjects such as map reading and learning about the oceans and countries of the world.
Speaking in the Commons, Mr Gove insisted the curriculum was “challenging and ambitious”, with a focus on the “fundamental building blocks of study, so that every child has the knowledge and understanding to succeed”.
The move came as the Government dramatically shelved plans to scrap GCSEs.
Mr Gove admitted that plans for new-style English Baccalaureate Certificates had been a “bridge too far” but insisted that GCSEs would be toughened up.
More stretching questions will be introduced and all pupils will be expected to sit the same exams, he said, abolishing existing “tiered” papers for low- and high-ability children.
The Education Secretary also set out plans to abolish league tables in their current form, introduce a new grading system and establish a national “sampling” test to check standards are being maintained.
But the decision to retain GCSEs was branded a “humiliating U-turn” by Labour which claimed Coalition education policy was a “total shambles”.
Teachers’ leaders welcomed the policy shift following widespread criticism over the decision to introduce EBacc Certificates.
Russell Hobby, general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, said the government had "slammed on the brakes just before the cliff face".
Ofqual, the exams regulator, also backed the move, but insisted it would be “challenging” to introduce the newly revamped GCSEs from 2015.
Stephen Twigg, the Shadow Education Secretary, insisted the new curriculum had been slimmed down to such an extent that it “crowded out a lot of very important parts” of the current document.
Queen Victoria is not mentioned in the new history curriculum and it makes no reference to specific pre-20th century authors. But Mary Seacole – the pioneering Jamaican-born nurse – has been included after an outcry over her exclusion from an earlier draft.
However, Lord Nash, the new Education Minister and Tory party donor, rubbished claims that the new curriculum was inferior.
"Anyone who thinks the current national curriculum is fit for purpose should frankly get out there and sit in lessons as I have done on many occasions and see just how content light the current national curriculum is and how it is short changing our pupils,” he said.