Should schools limit the teaching of fictional texts in favor of teaching more practical, nonfiction texts?

Some educators think that in our global, tech-oriented world, students need to focus on nonfiction texts, such as news stories, technical manuals, or other informational materials. They say that reading poetry, novels, and short stories is not the optimal use of the limited time that students have in the classroom. How do you view this approach to education? Should schools limit the teaching of fictional texts in favor of teaching more practical, nonfiction texts?

Education has to evolve. Nowadays there's an enormous amount of economic and political data freely available online. It's important that students can evaluate this information to understand local and world events in order to be good citizens. Reading fiction is a wonderful hobby but school should prepare students for adult and its responsibilities.

I spent a lot of class time in high school analyzing literature. I'm studying to be an engineer, so I admit that reading fiction in school was not directly applicable to my future occupation, but it did instill in me a love of reading, which is very valuable. I feel better equipped now to understand all sorts of written material.