Federal Government has cut the fees for textbook assessment and ranking by 25 percent as it prepares to roll out the National Textbook Ranking System in September 2026.
Gatekeepers News reports that Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC) said the reduction is intended to ease the financial burden on publishers and authors while encouraging wider participation in the new evaluation process.
According to NERDC Executive Secretary, Prof. Salisu Shehu, the assessment fee has been reduced from N2,000 to N1,500 per page, while the ranking fee has been lowered from N1 million to N750,000 per textbook title. He directed publishers and authors seeking textbook assessment to begin making payments based on the revised rates with immediate effect.
The council also announced that publishers who had already paid the previous assessment fee of N2,000 per page would receive refunds for the excess amount. It added that the procedure for processing the refunds would be communicated in due course.
The fee reduction follows concerns raised by the Nigerian Publishers Association (NPA), which had criticised the earlier charges, warning that they would increase textbook prices, place heavy financial pressure on publishers—particularly smaller firms—and undermine efforts to make educational materials affordable.
The National Textbook Ranking System, introduced by the Federal Ministry of Education, is scheduled to take effect in September 2026. Under the policy, only textbooks that have been assessed, approved and nationally ranked by NERDC will be permitted for use in primary, junior secondary and senior secondary schools, with the government saying the initiative is aimed at improving the quality of learning materials and eliminating substandard textbooks from classrooms.
