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Children's laureate Michael Rosen has branded current reading education "absurd and pathetic", and called on the government to make reading compulsory by law, the Daily Telegraph reports.
Speaking at a conference in London staged by the charity Booktrust, he said it was "extraordinary" that many children aged eight to 14 never read books, concentrating instead on worksheets compiled by teachers.
He called on schools secretary Ed Balls to force every local authority and school to develop policies on the reading of books, the newspaper said.