The Federal Government has authorized a reduction in the fees required for evaluating and ranking educational materials to relieve publishers and authors of financial stress prior to launching the National Textbook Ranking System.
This revision was disclosed through a official press statement personally issued by Salisu Shehu, Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC), in Abuja on Wednesday.
Details provided by the council show that evaluation charges for books have dropped to ₦1,500 per page from the previous ₦2,000, while the expense to rank each title has been lowered to ₦750,000 from ₦1 million.
The NERDC indicated that authors and publishing houses turning in materials for evaluation must adopt these updated figures immediately.
Additionally, the council revealed that any publisher who had previously cleared payments at the older rate of ₦2,000 per page will be issued refunds for the extra amount, noting that instructions for claiming these balances will be provided soon.
Stakeholders across the publishing sector were requested to adhere completely to the fresh directive.
These reduced rates come right before the kickoff of the Federal Government’s National Textbook Ranking System, a scheme initiated by Education Minister Dr. Maruf Alausa to unify the standard of teaching materials in Nigerian academic facilities.
Beginning in September 2026, the mandate dictates that solely books that pass through evaluation, approval, and ranking by the NERDC will be allowed in educational facilities, whereas unranked titles will face a total ban.
The minister previously clarified that the measure aims to curb the excess supply of books in institutions and guarantee that educators and students utilize exclusively top-tier learning resources aligned with the national curriculum.
He further emphasized that the NERDC will maintain its official legal mandate of clearing books for school use nationwide, though pointing out that standard approval will no longer suffice under the upcoming system.
Per the provisions of the policy, cleared educational texts will subsequently go through a organized national appraisal and ranking exercise managed by specialized committees to identify the best quality resources for every subject and academic level.
