The Nigerian Publishers Association has rejected the Federal Government’s proposed National Textbook Ranking System, warning that the policy could increase the cost of textbooks, stifle competition and create shortages of instructional materials across the country.
The association also criticised what it described as a sharp increase in textbook assessment fees by the Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council, saying the development would place an additional financial burden on publishers and ultimately affect parents and learners.
The President of the NPA, Lukman Dauda, stated this while addressing journalists in Lagos on Wednesday.
Dauda questioned the transparency of the proposed ranking framework and accused the authorities of introducing a policy that could commercialise access to educational materials.
He warned that implementing the ranking system could disrupt the education sector and weaken market competition among publishers.
“If the policy is being followed through, it will disrupt the nation’s academic sector, stifle market competition and precipitate an unprecedented scarcity of instructional materials nationwide,” he said.
The Federal Government had in April announced the introduction of a National Textbook Ranking System for primary, junior secondary and senior secondary schools as part of efforts to strengthen quality assurance and standardisation in the education sector.
Minister of Education, Maruf Tunji Alausa, and the Minister of State for Education, Suwaiba Sa’id Ahmad, said the initiative was aimed at addressing the proliferation of textbooks in schools and ensuring that only high-quality, curriculum-compliant materials are approved for classroom use.
Under the policy, NERDC will continue to approve textbooks but will also rank them through a national evaluation process conducted by Standing Subject Committees comprising subject-matter experts.
The government said only a limited number of textbooks would be ranked and approved for use in schools for each subject, a measure expected to improve quality control, reduce the excessive number of textbooks in circulation and align Nigeria’s education system with international best practices.
The NPA president also decried the increase in assessment fees from N500 to N2,000 per page and an additional N1m charge per subject for ranking.
Dauda argued that the charges would significantly raise the cost of doing business for publishers and eventually be passed on to consumers.
“How will such charges bring down the cost of books and make them affordable to parents? We urge the Federal Ministry of Education to come out clean on the real intentions behind this unpopular experiment,” he said.
“As it stands, the integrity and transparency of the process are in doubt. Why would a reform that is genuinely targeted at quality, accessible and affordable education design the process only for the highest bidder? The whole process smacks of deceit shrouded in the cloak of educational reforms.”
He disclosed that a standard publishing company seeking to provide textbooks across the basic and senior secondary school curriculum could spend as much as N135.57m on assessment and ranking fees alone.
The NPA president further argued that the ranking model was borrowed from countries with significantly smaller populations and educational systems, making it unsuitable for Nigeria.
According to him, Nigeria’s educational ecosystem serves about 60 million learners and supports more than 200 active publishing firms.
Dauda warned that limiting approved instructional materials to a small number of ranked textbooks could introduce institutional bias and threaten the sustainability of the publishing industry.
He also faulted the timing of the policy, noting that it was introduced barely seven months after the implementation of a new national curriculum.
According to him, the initiative, though presented as a quality assurance measure, could undermine the objectives it seeks to achieve.
“While the policy proposes to ensure that learners have access to accurate, relevant and affordable educational materials, it inherently smacks of deceit and breeds commercialisation, thereby weakening the standard it seeks to uphold,” Dauda said.
As an alternative, he urged the government to strengthen the existing textbook evaluation framework by certifying all books that meet prescribed national standards rather than introducing a comparative ranking system.
“The future of Nigerian children must not become the subject of policy experimentation, political expediency or self-serving interests,” he said.
Dauda called on state governments, school proprietors and other stakeholders to intervene and demand an immediate review of the policy.
The policy is scheduled to take effect from the September 2026 academic session following the completion of the evaluation process and the establishment of the subject committees.
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