'Tough and rigorous' new national curriculum published David Cameron sits with pupil Anna Seitoar, nine, in a computer class at St Mary's and St John's CE School in north London. The government has made sweeping changes to its proposals for teaching English, history and modern languages in schools, dumped ICT in favour of computing and left a spaghetti-like tangle of overlapping course content for teachers and pupils to digest. Under the new national curriculum published on Tuesday, schools will have more choice over which languages they can teach, the much-criticised British emphasis in history lessons has been pared down, and the teaching of spoken language skills is restored to English after an outcry at its removal in the initial draft. The teaching of word processing will be dropped in favour of allowing five-year-olds to create and test their own computer programs. The changes come after what the Department for Education (DfE) described as "unprecedented levels of interest" in the draft documents, published earlier this year. The education secretary, Michael Gove, said the new courses would be introduced in state schools in England from 2014. But Gove's swift timetable and the need to redesign GCSE exams and key-stage criteria mean many pupils will still be taught using the existing curriculum, potentially creating headaches for schools and teachers having to bounce between old and new course content. David Cameron defended the redesigned curriculum, saying: "It is tough and rigorous and some people are worried about that, but it is the right thing to do." The curriculum applies only to state maintained schools in England. Academies and free schools can ignore the requirements of the national curriculum if they choose, while independent schools have never been subject to it. Teaching groups and unions have complained that the September 2014 implementation date could cause problems as the changes are phased in. "Michael Gove continues to be in too much of a rush and seems to care more about making changes than making sure they are the right ones for children," said Mary Bousted, general secretary of Association of Teachers and Lecturers. According to the DfE's consultation document, primary school pupils in years 2 and 6 (ages seven and 11) will be taught maths, science and English using the old curriculum, because the key stage tests (Sats) to be held in summer 2015 will not have been revised in time to include the new curriculum. The same thing will happen to secondary school pupils in year 10 (age 15) in 2014 and year 11 (age 16) in 2015, with the old key stage 4 curriculum content taught in the core subjects of English, maths and science because GCSE exams in those subjects will not be ready in time to take account of the new content. Kevin Courtney, deputy general secretary of the National Union of Teachers, said the timescale for implementation was ridiculously short. In less than a year teachers will be expected to implement a curriculum that they have had no say in. This will almost certainly lead to confusion and chaos and comes on top of reforms to GCSEs, A-levels and vocational qualifications, all of which are also being rushed through with little thought given to the practicalities of implementation, never mind the content," he said. The DfE said it had avoided a legal tangle by scrapping the need for state schools to follow most of the existing national curriculum - a process known as disapplication - from the start of the next school year in September 2013. The latest documents contain major revisions to the first attempt in February this year to overhaul the curriculum for pupils aged five to 14, which attracted sustained criticism. The DfE said it received 17,000 submissions during the consultation period, from teachers, employers and parents, as part of what it described as "a vigorous national debate on the content and purpose of the national curriculum." Gove said the new curriculum would be tougher and more demanding in order for England's pupils to keep pace with their peers overseas. He said on ITV's Daybreak: "I want my children, who are in primary school at the moment, to have the sort of curriculum that children in other countries have, which are doing better than our own. Because when my son and daughter graduate from school and then either go on to university or into the workplace, they're competing for college places and jobs with folk from across the globe, and I want my children to receive an education as rigorous as any country's. Under the new maths curriculum, five-year-olds in their first year of school will be taught to read and write numbers up to 100, count in multiples of ones, twos, fives and 10s, and learn addition and subtraction. Year 1 pupils will also be expected to do basic fractions, two years ahead of the existing curriculum, and algebra is to be taught from age 10. Courtney said not enough effort had been made to design a curriculum for lower-attaining children or children with special educational needs. "Teachers have concerns about whether this curriculum is right for children with special educational needs, who form 20% of the student population, and should not be an afterthought," he said.