FG bans 25% textbooks, sets 70% pass mark for school books
By Joseph Erunke, Abuja
The Federal Government has drawn a fresh battle line against substandard textbooks in Nigerian schools, declaring that instructional materials scoring below 70 per cent will no longer qualify for national ranking.
The new standard followed the first-ever national textbook assessment and ranking exercise conducted by the Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council, NERDC, which exposed disturbing quality gaps in books submitted for use in Nigerian classrooms, with some scoring as low as 25 per cent.
Receiving the assessment report and ranked list in Abuja on Friday, Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, said the government could no longer tolerate the use of poorly written, inaccurate or curriculum-incompatible textbooks to educate Nigerian children.
In a blunt assessment of the situation, Alausa declared that some textbooks currently finding their way into primary and secondary schools were simply unacceptable.
The minister said: “Some of the books being used in our schools, primary schools, junior secondary schools and senior secondary schools are trash. Some of these books are scoring 25 per cent or lower. Is this the way our children should be educated? If this happened with the government, it will not happen with this government.”
Alausa said the 70 per cent threshold was deliberately introduced to ensure that only textbooks meeting acceptable quality standards would make the national ranked list.
According to him, the exercise was not intended to cripple the publishing industry but to establish a transparent quality-control mechanism capable of protecting Nigerian learners from materials that could undermine learning outcomes.
He urged publishers whose books failed to meet the benchmark to study the assessment results, correct identified deficiencies and resubmit their materials for consideration.
“I’m giving you the olive branch,” the Minister told publishers, while commending those who participated in the exercise despite what he described as pressure and blackmail.
The development comes against the backdrop of the revised national curriculum introduced in September 2025, with the Federal Government seeking to ensure that textbooks and other instructional materials keep pace with the new curriculum.
Alausa explained that NERDC had developed a standardised textbook assessment toolkit, benchmarked against international best practices, to evaluate the suitability of instructional materials being presented for use in Nigerian schools.
He disclosed that curriculum alignment constituted the largest component of the assessment, accounting for 51 per cent of the overall score.
Other areas assessed included language and style, instructional design, technical features, social and cultural compliance and gender sensitivity.
The minister said the assessment would henceforth provide publishers with concrete evidence of the strengths and weaknesses of their textbooks, rather than leaving the quality of instructional materials to subjective judgments.
He said the Federal Government’s concern was not merely about producing a ranked list of textbooks but ensuring that every material placed before a Nigerian child was accurate, relevant, curriculum-aligned and fit for purpose.
“Every instructional material presented to a Nigerian learner must be accurate, curriculum-aligned and fit for purpose,” he stressed, adding that the government would not compromise the quality of education.
The assessment will be conducted in three cycles to cover the entire basic and senior secondary school curriculum.
The first cycle covers Primary 1 and 4, Junior Secondary School 1, JSS 1, and Senior Secondary School 1, SS 1.
The second cycle will cover Primary 2 and 5, JSS 2 and SS 2, while the third cycle will assess textbooks for Primary 3 and 6, JSS 3 and SS 3.
Also speaking on the exercise, NERDC Executive Secretary, Prof. Salisu Shehu, said the assessment was carried out in line with the Council’s statutory responsibility for developing, reviewing and promoting quality educational materials in the country.
Shehu said subject specialists, education experts and NERDC officials participated in the process, working with approved assessment criteria and a defined scoring framework.
He said the exercise also incorporated peer review to ensure that the outcome did not depend on the judgment of a single official.
According to him, the results represented documented professional assessments and collective expert judgment.
He said the emergence of scores as low as 25 per cent reinforced the need for a credible national mechanism for evaluating textbooks before they reach Nigerian classrooms.
Meanwhile, Alausa announced that the national curriculum would henceforth be reviewed every three years to ensure that it remained responsive to emerging technological, educational and societal developments.
The minister said the combination of regular curriculum reviews and stricter textbook assessment was aimed at creating a more coherent quality-assurance system across the education sector.
He assured publishers that those who met the 70 per cent benchmark would be expected to maintain and improve their standards, while those below the threshold would be allowed to correct identified shortcomings and return for reassessment.
The minister said the initiative formed part of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda for the education sector, stressing that the ultimate beneficiary of the stricter standards must be the Nigerian child.
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