Labour

Labour’s advice to teachers was ‘the length of two Bibles’

Labour’s advice to teachers was ‘the length of two Bibles’

By politics.co.uk staff

One year’s worth of Labour guidance to teachers was equivalent to reading the King James Bible twice, it has been revealed.

Figures released by Michael Gove this morning reveal the full extent of Labour’s emails to headteachers when it was in power.

One annual period, between April 2009 and 2010, saw 1.65 million words of guidance, regulations and information about government initiatives.

The emails were equivalent to reading all seven Harry Potter books and all seven Chronicles of Narnia, or reading the complete works of Shakespeare twice.

“What Labour’s bombardment of schools shows is not only an obsession with pointless bureaucracy but, actually more importantly, a total lack of trust in teachers,” Mr Gove said.

The education secretary released the figures in a bid to prove how restrained current levels of communication are with teachers.

Mr Gove insisted that under the coalition government schools had received just 69,714 words of information and guidance – a 94% reduction on 2009 levels.