The Federal Government has introduced a 70 per cent minimum benchmark for textbooks to qualify for inclusion in Nigeria’s national ranking of instructional materials, following an assessment that found some books scoring as low as 25 per cent.

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

Alausa said the measure was aimed at ensuring that only textbooks that meet acceptable quality standards and align with the revised national curriculum are made available to learners in Nigerian schools.

The assessment was conducted by the Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC) using a standardised toolkit developed in line with international best practices. Curriculum alignment accounted for the largest component of the assessment, with a weighting of 51 per cent, while other areas examined included language and style, instructional design, technical features, social and cultural compliance, and gender sensitivity.

The Minister said the findings exposed significant weaknesses in some of the instructional materials submitted for assessment, with some scoring 25 per cent or below.

Alausa described the quality of some of the materials as unacceptable, stressing that the government would not compromise on the standard of textbooks used to educate Nigerian children.

He, however, said publishers whose materials failed to meet the 70 per cent threshold would not be excluded from the education sector. Instead, they would be allowed to study the assessment reports, address identified deficiencies, align their books with the revised curriculum and resubmit them for consideration.

The Minister also disclosed that the national textbook assessment would be conducted in three cycles to cover different levels of the basic and senior secondary school curriculum.

The first cycle covers Primary One and Four, Junior Secondary School One and Senior Secondary School One. The second will cover Primary Two and Five, Junior Secondary School Two and Senior Secondary School Two, while the third will cover Primary Three and Six, Junior Secondary School Three and Senior Secondary School Three.

Alausa further announced that the national curriculum would henceforth be reviewed every three years to keep pace with emerging educational, technological and societal developments.

He said the textbook assessment was designed not merely to rank instructional materials but to establish a mechanism for continuously monitoring and improving the quality of resources available to Nigerian learners.

The Executive Secretary of NERDC, Professor Salisu Shehu, said the assessment was carried out by subject specialists, education experts and NERDC officials using approved criteria and a defined scoring framework.

Shehu said the process included peer review and collective expert assessment to ensure that the results were based on documented professional judgment rather than the evaluation of a single official.

He said textbooks scoring below the 70 per cent benchmark would not be included in the national ranked list, adding that the discovery of materials scoring as low as 25 per cent demonstrated the need for a transparent and evidence-based system for evaluating instructional materials.