THE Federal Government has approved a downward review of fees for the assessment and ranking of textbooks as part of efforts to ease the financial burden on publishers and authors ahead of the implementation of the National Textbook Ranking System.
News Point Nigeria reports that the review was announced in a statement personally signed by the Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC), Salisu Shehu, and made available to journalists on Wednesday in Abuja.
According to the council, the fee for textbook assessment has been reduced from ₦2,000 to ₦1,500 per page, while the cost of ranking textbooks has been cut from ₦1 million to ₦750,000 per title.
NERDC stated that publishers and authors submitting textbooks for assessment are expected to comply with the revised rates with immediate effect.
The council also disclosed that publishers who had already paid the previous assessment fee of ₦2,000 per page would receive refunds for the excess payments, adding that the procedure for processing the refunds would be announced in due course.
It urged all stakeholders in the book industry to comply fully with the new directive.
The review comes ahead of the commencement of the Federal Government’s National Textbook Ranking System, an initiative introduced by the Minister of Education, Dr. Maruf Alausa, to standardise instructional materials used in Nigerian schools.
Under the policy, which will take effect from September 2026, only textbooks that have been assessed, approved and ranked by NERDC will be permitted for use in classrooms, while unranked textbooks will be prohibited.
The minister had explained that the initiative was designed to address the proliferation of textbooks in schools and ensure that learners and teachers have access only to high-quality instructional materials that comply with the national curriculum.
He also maintained that NERDC would continue to exercise its statutory responsibility of approving textbooks for use in schools across the country, but noted that approval alone would no longer be sufficient under the new regime.
According to the policy, approved textbooks will subsequently undergo a structured national evaluation and ranking process conducted by expert committees to determine the most suitable and highest-quality books for each subject and level of education.
