The battle over who decides which textbooks find their way into Nigerian classrooms is gathering momentum, with publishers warning that a new Federal Government policy could reshape the country’s education landscape in ways they fear may hurt learners, parents and the publishing industry.
The Nigerian Publishers Association has rejected the Federal Government’s proposed National Textbook Ranking System, warning that the initiative could increase textbook prices, reduce competition among publishers and create shortages of instructional materials nationwide.
The association also criticised what it described as a significant increase in textbook assessment fees introduced by the Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council, arguing that the additional costs would ultimately be transferred to parents and students.
Speaking at a press conference in Lagos on Wednesday, the President of the NPA, Lukman Dauda, questioned the transparency of the ranking framework and accused the authorities of introducing a policy that could commercialise access to educational materials.
According to him, the proposed ranking system poses a threat to both the publishing industry and the wider education sector.
“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,” Dauda 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.
The Minister of Education, Dr Maruf Tunji Alausa, and the Minister of State for Education, Prof Suwaiba Sa’id Ahmad, explained that the initiative was designed to address the proliferation of textbooks in schools and ensure that only high-quality, curriculum-compliant materials are approved for classroom use.
Under the policy, NERDC will continue to assess and approve textbooks but will also rank them through a national evaluation process conducted by Standing Subject Committees made up of 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 move aimed at improving quality control, reducing the excessive number of textbooks in circulation and aligning Nigeria’s education system with international best practices.
However, the publishers argued that the policy could produce unintended consequences.
Dauda particularly faulted the increase in textbook assessment fees from N500 to N2,000 per page, as well as an additional N1m ranking charge per subject.
He said the new charges would significantly increase production costs for publishers.
“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.”
Dauda 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 also argued that the ranking model was adopted from countries with far smaller educational systems and therefore may not suit Nigeria’s realities.
According to him, Nigeria’s education sector serves about 60 million learners and supports more than 200 active publishing firms.
He warned that restricting approved instructional materials to only a few ranked textbooks could introduce institutional bias and threaten the survival of many publishing companies.
Dauda further criticised the timing of the policy, noting that it comes less than a year after the implementation of a new national curriculum.
He argued that although the initiative is being presented as a quality assurance measure, it risks undermining the very 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,” he said.
As an alternative, the association urged the government to strengthen the existing textbook evaluation framework by certifying all books that meet 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,” Dauda stated.
He also called on state governments, school proprietors and other education stakeholders to intervene and demand an immediate review of the policy before its planned implementation in September 2026.
The National Textbook Ranking System is expected to take effect at the start of the 2026/2027 academic session following the completion of the evaluation process and the establishment of subject-based ranking committees.
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