The Federal Government has inaugurated a committee on Book Ranking and Selection, to strengthen the quality and affordability of textbooks used in Nigerian schools.

The initiative is aimed at addressing gaps in the current textbook approval process, which has allowed poor-quality materials, lack of standardization and excessive financial burden on parents, to thrive.

Speaking at the inauguration in Abuja yesterday, the Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa, said the existing system had failed to adequately validate and rank textbooks before approval. He said this had led to a situation where some subjects had up to 50 approved books with no clear quality benchmarks.

He said the absence of a robust ranking structure meant that instructional materials of minimal quality were approved alongside those of much higher pedagogical value.

The minister added that publishers had also bundled workbooks and consumables with core textbooks, forcing parents to buy new books every year and placing unnecessary financial pressure on families.