FG bars low-quality textbooks as Alausa sets 70% benchmark for national ranking

By Felix Khanoba

The Federal Government has raised the bar for instructional materials in Nigerian schools, setting a 70 per cent minimum score for textbooks to qualify for national ranking following an assessment that found some submitted books scoring as low as 25 per cent.

The Minister of Education, Dr. Maruf Tunji Alausa, announced the new benchmark in Abuja while receiving the report and ranked list from Nigeria’s first national textbook assessment and ranking exercise.

Alausa said the move was aimed at ensuring that only textbooks that meet acceptable quality standards and align with the revised national curriculum are allowed to reach Nigerian classrooms.

The assessment is part of the Federal Government’s broader quality assurance efforts under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda, particularly following the implementation of the revised national curriculum in September 2025.

According to the Minister, the Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC) developed a standardised assessment toolkit based on international best practices to evaluate textbooks and determine their suitability for use in schools.

A statement signed by Alausa’s Special Adviser on Media and Communications, Ikharo Attah, on Friday, said curriculum alignment accounted for the largest component of the assessment, with a weighting of 51 per cent.

Other areas examined included language and style, instructional design, technical features, social and cultural compliance, as well as gender sensitivity.

Alausa said the 70 per cent benchmark was intentionally introduced to ensure that only textbooks meeting the required standard would make the national ranking, while publishers whose submissions failed to meet the threshold would be allowed to correct identified shortcomings and resubmit their materials.

The exercise exposed wide disparities in the quality of the textbooks assessed, with some receiving scores of only 25 per cent.

Reacting to the findings, the Minister said the situation revealed serious weaknesses in some of the materials being supplied to Nigerian schools.

“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% or lower. Is this the way our children should be educated? If this happened with the government, it will not happen with this government,” he said.

Despite the poor results recorded by some submissions, Alausa said the assessment was not intended to exclude publishers from the education sector.

He urged the Nigerian Publishers Association (NPA) and publishers whose books fell below the benchmark to study the assessment reports, correct the identified deficiencies, ensure alignment with the revised curriculum and submit their books again.

“I’m giving you the olive branch,” the Minister said, while commending publishers who participated in the exercise despite what he described as “pressure and blackmail.”

Alausa disclosed that the national textbook assessment would be implemented in three cycles to cover the various levels of the basic and senior secondary school curriculum.

The first cycle covers Primary 1 and 4, JSS 1 and SS 1; the second focuses on Primary 2 and 5, JSS 2 and SS 2; while the third covers Primary 3 and 6, JSS 3 and SS 3.

He also disclosed that the national curriculum would henceforth undergo review every three years to ensure that it remains relevant to emerging educational, technological and societal developments.

The Executive Secretary of NERDC, Prof. Salisu Shehu, said the assessment was conducted in accordance with the Council’s statutory responsibility to develop, review and promote quality educational materials for Nigeria’s education system.

Shehu explained that subject specialists, education experts and NERDC officials participated in the assessment using approved criteria and a defined scoring framework.

He said the process included peer review and was designed not to depend on the assessment of a single official, stressing that the final results were based on documented professional assessments and collective expert judgment.

According to him, the adoption of the 70 per cent benchmark means that textbooks scoring below the threshold would not be included in the national ranked list.

Shehu added that the discovery of textbooks with scores as low as 25 per cent reinforced the importance of having a transparent and evidence-based national system for assessing instructional materials.

Reaffirming the Federal Government’s determination to improve education standards under the Renewed Hope Agenda, Alausa said the exercise would provide a mechanism for monitoring and improving the quality of textbooks available to Nigerian learners.

He said publishers that meet the benchmark would be expected to maintain and continuously improve their standards, while those that fall short would have an opportunity to address the weaknesses identified through the assessment.

The Minister stressed that the exercise was about more than ranking textbooks, saying its ultimate objective was to protect the quality of learning in Nigerian schools.

He maintained that every instructional material made available to Nigerian learners must be accurate, aligned with the approved curriculum and fit for purpose, insisting that the government would not compromise on standards because Nigerian children deserve quality textbooks capable of supporting the education they are being prepared to receive.

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