By Godwin Okondo
THERE’S a growing disquiet in Nigeria’s book publishing industry with the newly introduced textbook ranking policy by the Federal Ministry of Education. While the desire for quality is desirable, the manner in which the ministry hurriedly implemented the ranking policy, alongside a new curricula, has left many stakeholders wondering if something else other than quality of books is not at play.
At a time millions of Nigerian children are out of school, it seems the ministry of education is more concerned with revenue collection for government with a policy that will increases the cost of books. With the dire economic situation in the country, stakeholders had expected that the ministry would provide some form of subsidy or palliatives to publishers to help reduce the cost of printing books as incentive for more school enrolment.
Instead, the Federal Ministry of Education under the supervision of Mr. Tunji Alausa as minister, introduced a new school textbook ranking policy that is threatening to force over 300 publishing firms out of business. These are registered members of the Nigerian Publishers Association (NPA), alongside hundreds of other non-members, smaller publishers and authors; who depend on publishing for survival. In Mr. Alausa’s book ranking policy, any book ranked lower than 10 cannot be considered for recommendation for schools. Assuming 10 publishers have their books ranked, what happens to over 400 publishers and their authors, who have provided quality books for Nigeria’s educational system over the years? Did Mr. Alausa consider the job loses his policy will cause with the closure of these publishing houses across Nigeria? Also, what happens to the authors who earn royalties from book sales from these publishers?
In spite of the fact that education is on the concurrent list of the Nigerian Constitution, the minister has communicated to even the private schools approved by the States to use only books that emanate from the Federal Ministry of Education’s opaque ranking policy. This means that Mr. Alausa’s policy is in clear violation of a federal law. Why a minister would choose the path of illegality without engaging in consultation with industry stakeholders, who are at odds how the new book ranking was carried out, and believe that the process lacked transparency. How many books per subject were actually ranked and approved? A cursory enquiry among bookstores in major cities across the country indicates that the ranked books are nowhere to be found even as a new school session has since begun. Is the policy designed to create artificial scarcity of books as has never been seen before in Nigeria? What exactly is Mr. Alausa’s goal in this hurriedly packaged textbook ranking policy?
As a result of the education ministry’s new policy, a large section of publishers are shut out of the usual assessment of books for a new curriculum that was introduced last year, scheduled for implementation this school year. NERDC gave publishers just three months to commission books ready for the new curricula. By the time publishers were ready with their books, NERDC shut its doors and refused to allow more books to be assessed. Books by only 10 publishers were eventually ranked that accounts for a mere fraction out of almost 400 publishers in Nigeria.
Stakeholders have also confirmed that the new curriculum for books was not released on time to give publishers enough time. While a new curriculum was released in September 2025, the curriculum for Mathematics for Primary 5, which ought to start in 2026, has not been released in October 2026. Meanwhile, it is common knowledge that good books take time to be written and published, a feat that cannot be accomplished within three months, if quality is the goal. Clearly, the current executives at NERDC have done a shoddy job of the new curricula, as the body failed to carry stakeholders along but acted outside the norm that had guided a smooth process that the industry had worked seamlessly with over the years.
While Minister Alausa is busy talking about recommending quality books to children, the haphazard manner the new curriculum is being released speaks of chaos instead. What can be qualitative about books when a curriculum is released in September and books are expected to be published by November for assessment? Even up till now, the second part of the newly curriculum released by NERDC still does not have some subjects. Meanwhile, books for these subjects are expected to be assessed in November that has almost gone half-way.
What Minister Alausa and the NERDC are offering is a poorly implemented curriculum coupled with a nebulous ranking policy that has only served to cause confusion in the book sector. And stakeholders are strongly demanding that this ranking policy be rescinded immediately for sanity to prevail in the book sector.
With the new textbook ranking policy set to undermine the plurality that the book sector has thrived on for decades, Mr. Alausa has put thousands of jobs and livelihoods on the line. With jobs losses and companies folding up becoming gravely imminent, corporate taxes to governments through taxes by these publishers and personal income taxes by their employees will be lost, and the yearly dividends to shareholders are threatened.
With NERDC refusing to assess newly published books, what happens to published books for the new curriculum in view? Meanwhile, there are some books published in 2021 and 2024 that have been found to be in the kangaroo list of books NERDC ranked and approved for 2026 and beyond. How did these books, written before the new curriculum came into effect, find their way into the list? And why did the NERDC refuse to assess the books published to fit the new curriculum?
These are concerns that have thrown the book industry into disarray at the start of a new academic session. A policy of government that brings more pain than relief is patiently bad and should be rescinded immediately. High cost of printing books has consistently already put publishers on edge in the last few years. To add a policy that has the potential to cause the closure of companies, cause massive job loses, loss of royalties income to authors and a reduction in taxes to governments cannot be a good policy by any stretch of the imagination. These indices make Mr. Alausa’s book ranking policy an anathema to an overburdened industry that has served Nigerians for decades without hiccups. A stitch in time saves nine!
