Oluwatobi Adu 
ABUJA, Nigeria – The Federal Government has raised the bar for textbooks used in Nigerian schools, setting a 70 per cent minimum score for instructional materials to qualify for the national textbook ranking after an assessment found some submitted books scored as low as 25 per cent.
Minister of Education, Dr Maruf Tunji Alausa, announced the new benchmark on Friday in Abuja while receiving the report and ranked list from Nigeria’s first national textbook assessment and ranking exercise.
“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? If this happens with the government, it will not happen with this government,” he said.
Curriculum alignment accounted for 51 per cent of the assessment, alongside language, instructional design, technical features, social and cultural compliance and gender sensitivity.
Executive Secretary of NERDC, Prof. Salisu Shehu, said the exercise involved subject specialists and education experts who worked with an approved scoring framework, peer review and documented professional assessments.
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