Lagos — HUMAN Rights Writers' Association of Nigeria, (HURIWA) yesterday lamented what it called the speedy collapse of the nation's educational system and called for the immediate sack of the Education Minister, Dr. Sam Egwu, for alleged dereliction of duty and failure to competently negotiate with the university teachers to prevent the frequent industrial actions.

The group also said the current administration had portrayed itself by words and actions as being anti-intellectualism even as it called on the government to save the public educational system from total collapse.

In a statement after its monthly meeting and endorsed by the National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, the group urged the National Assembly in the corporate interest of Nigeria to initiate and pass a legislation for onward endorsement of President Umaru Yar'Adua to make it compulsory that children of all political office holders who are of school age must be enrolled in public schools up to the university level.

According to him, the group believes that if a law is made to compel political office holders to educate their children in public schools, then the rapidly collapsing public educational system would be saved from imminent and total collapse.

HURIWA said the fundamental cause of the decay in the public educational system in the country was linked to the fact that most political office holders have enrolled their children in the few good private schools in Nigeria and foreign nations including Ghana.

Blaming the current administration for actively working to undermine the development and introduction of workable infrastructure in the various public educational institutions, the group demanded the sack of the Education minister for the alleged deceptive measures he has adopted in the ongoing trade dispute between the Federal Government and the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).

The group called on the Federal Government to honour and implement the agreement reached with the university teachers eight years ago and provide the basic infrastructural facilities necessary for learning in the various neglected public tertiary institutions in Nigeria.