Alausa Warns Publishers as FG Raises Textbook Benchmark to 70%

The Federal Government has raised the minimum benchmark for textbooks to qualify for national ranking to 70 per cent, warning publishers that substandard instructional materials will no longer be allowed to compromise the quality of education in Nigerian schools.

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

Alausa said the initiative was part of the Federal Government’s broader quality assurance measures following the introduction of the revised national curriculum in September 2025.

The assessment, conducted by the Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC), was based on a standardised toolkit developed to ensure that textbooks submitted by publishers were properly aligned with the revised curriculum and met acceptable quality standards.

Curriculum alignment constituted the largest component of the assessment, accounting for 51 per cent, while other areas examined included language and style, instructional design, technical features, social and cultural compliance, as well as gender sensitivity.

The exercise exposed major differences in the quality of textbooks submitted for assessment, with some materials scoring as low as 25 per cent.

The findings prompted a strong reaction from the minister, who questioned the suitability of such materials for use in 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?” Alausa said.

He said the decision to set 70 per cent as the minimum score for ranking was deliberate, adding that the government could not compromise on the quality of materials used to teach Nigerian children.

The minister, however, clarified that publishers whose textbooks failed to meet the benchmark would be allowed to address the shortcomings identified during the assessment and resubmit their materials.

“I’m giving you the olive branch,” he told publishers, while urging the Nigerian Publishers Association and individual publishers to study the assessment results and make the necessary corrections.

According to him, the objective of the exercise is not to shut publishers out of the education sector but to establish a credible quality-control mechanism that would ensure that instructional materials meet the requirements of the revised curriculum.

The national assessment will be implemented in three cycles to cover all levels of the basic and senior secondary school curriculum.

The first cycle covers Primary 1 and 4, Junior Secondary School 1 and Senior Secondary School 1. The second covers Primary 2 and 5, JSS 2 and SS 2, while the third will cover Primary 3 and 6, JSS 3 and SS 3.

Alausa also announced that the national curriculum would henceforth be reviewed 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 carried out in line with the council’s statutory responsibility to develop, review and promote quality educational materials for the Nigerian education system.

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

He said the process involved peer review and collective professional assessment, rather than the judgment of a single official.

The NERDC boss said the 70 per cent threshold was adopted specifically as the minimum standard for inclusion in the national ranked list.

He added that the scores recorded by some textbooks, including those as low as 25 per cent, demonstrated the importance of establishing a transparent and evidence-based system for determining the quality of instructional materials available to Nigerian learners.

Alausa said the ranked list would also serve as feedback for publishers, enabling them to identify weaknesses in their materials and improve them before resubmission.

He assured publishers that the government remained willing to work with those prepared to meet the new standard, while those already meeting the benchmark would be expected to sustain and continually improve their quality.

The minister stressed that the exercise was ultimately about protecting learning outcomes rather than merely producing a ranking of textbooks.

He said instructional materials used by Nigerian pupils and students must be accurate, properly aligned with the curriculum and suitable for classroom use.

Alausa said the Federal Government would continue to strengthen quality assurance across the education sector as part of the education reforms being pursued under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda.

He maintained that every Nigerian child deserved access to learning materials capable of supporting the quality of education the government seeks to provide.