NERDC cuts textbook assessment, ranking fees ahead of new national system
The Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC) has reduced the fees for assessing and ranking textbooks ahead of the implementation of the federal government’s national textbook ranking system.
The fee review was announced in a statement signed by Salisu Shehu, executive secretary of NERDC, and made available to journalists in Abuja on Wednesday.
Under the revised rates, the assessment fee has been reduced from N2,000 to N1,500 per page, while the fee for ranking textbooks has been cut from N1 million to N750,000 per title.
NERDC said publishers and authors submitting textbooks for assessment are required to pay the revised fees with immediate effect.
The council also said publishers who had already paid the former assessment fee of N2,000 per page would be refunded the difference. It added that details of the refund process would be announced in due course.
The revised fees take immediate effect, and the council urged stakeholders in the book industry to comply with the new rates.
The review comes ahead of the planned implementation of the federal government’s national textbook ranking system, an initiative introduced by Tunji Alausa, minister of education, to standardise learning materials used in Nigerian schools.
Under the policy, which is scheduled to take effect in September 2026, only textbooks assessed, approved and ranked by NERDC will be permitted for use in classrooms. Unranked textbooks will not be allowed.
Alausa has said the initiative is intended to address the proliferation of textbooks in schools and ensure that learners and teachers have access to high-quality, curriculum-compliant instructional materials.
The minister said NERDC would continue to exercise its statutory responsibility of approving textbooks for use in Nigerian schools, but approval alone would no longer be sufficient.
Under the new policy, approved textbooks will undergo a structured national evaluation and ranking process by expert committees to identify the most suitable and highest-quality books for each subject and level of education.
