The Federal Government has approved a reduction in 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.
The fee review was announced in a statement signed by the Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC), Prof. Salisu Shehu, and released on Wednesday in Abuja.
According to NERDC, the textbook assessment fee has been reduced from ₦2,000 to ₦1,500 per page, while the ranking fee has been cut from ₦1 million to ₦750,000 per textbook title.
The Council said publishers and authors submitting textbooks for assessment are to make payments based on the revised rates with immediate effect.
NERDC also disclosed that publishers who had already paid the previous assessment fee of ₦2,000 per page would receive refunds for the excess payment, adding that details on the refund process would be communicated in due course.
The Council urged stakeholders in the publishing industry to comply with the revised fee structure.
The reduction comes ahead of the rollout of the Federal Government’s National Textbook Ranking System, an education reform introduced by the Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, to improve the quality of instructional materials used in Nigerian schools.
Under the policy, which takes effect from September 2026, only textbooks that have been assessed, approved and ranked by NERDC will be recommended for use in classrooms, while unranked textbooks will no longer be permitted in schools.
Alausa said the initiative was designed to address the proliferation of substandard learning materials and ensure that teachers and learners have access to high-quality, curriculum-aligned textbooks.
He explained that while NERDC would continue to perform its statutory responsibility of approving textbooks, approval alone would no longer be sufficient. Approved textbooks would also undergo a structured national evaluation and ranking process conducted by expert committees to determine the most suitable materials for different subjects and levels of education.
