Children's lives are being impoverished by an education that is "fundamentally deficient", a major inquiry has concluded.
It argues their entitlement to a broad and balanced curriculum has been eroded by a fixation on standards in the basics of literacy and numeracy.
Other subjects, such as history, geography, the arts and even science have been "squeezed out".
The report says while there is a need for a national curriculum, in its current form it is seen as "overcrowded, unmanageable and in certain respects inappropriately conceived."
The interim report on the primary curriculum is part of the Cambridge University-based Primary Review - the biggest inquiry in primary education for 40 years.
Professor Robin Alexander, director of the Cambridge Primary Review said: "Our argument is that their (children's) education, and to some degree their lives, are impoverished if they have received an education that is so fundamentally deficient."
The report found the curriculum is now subject to "excessive prescription and micro-management" from the Government, and Government agencies. And it also addresses the issue of testing in schools, which it calls "the elephant in the curriculum", noting that in Year 6 especially, the final year of primary school, "breadth competes with the much narrower scope of what is to be tested."
It concludes: "The problem of the curriculum is inseparable from the problem of assessment and testing. Unless the national assessment system is reformed, especially at Key Stage 2, changes to the curriculum will have limited impact and the curriculum outside the favoured zone of tested subjects will continue to be compromised."
Christine Blower, acting general secretary of the National Union of Teachers said: "It is a matter of real concern that the Government is keeping Robin Alexander's review at arm's length. His proposals for the primary curriculum have depth, credibility and, above all, respond to the realities of the primary classroom."
A DCSF spokeswoman said: "To say our children are receiving a deficient education is insulting to hard working pupils and teachers everywhere and flies in the face of international evidence."
