He, however, faces the daunting task of getting the book certified and accepted for use in the nation’s schools. To get the certification by the Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council, NERDC, he has to pay N60,000 for the certification exercise.
For an author who wants his book approved for use at state level, he has to go to the Curriculum Service Department in the Ministry of Education in the state. There are 36 states in Nigeria, excluding the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. Some new and young authors are also raising the allegation of partiality in the approval of textbooks, saying established authors and big publishers are favoured over others. However, a staff in the Curriculum Service Department, Lagos State Ministry of Education, who craved anonymity, debunked that.
You see, it is a great task.” On the issue of some people trying to cut corners, the source noted that with the current administration, the department has few or no bad eggs. He, however, explained that one could not rule out the possibility of having such persons in an organisation.Mr. Dare Oluwatuyi, the President, Booksellers Association of Nigeria and who is also the Chairman, Nigerian Book Fair Trust, said corruption makes such books to find their way into classrooms.
He suggested that the Nigerian Copyright Commission, NCC, should be strengthened to work with other stakeholders in the industry to curtail the menace of piracy. Our source at the Ministry of Education in Lagos, while reacting to how unapproved books get to be used in schools, blamed the situation on some private school owners.
“For instance, a book we reviewed had some of its contents changed. What do we do? One of us visited his child’s school for a book reading event. While one of the books was being read, it was discovered that it was different from what we had reviewed. We had to call the attention of the author. This is a pathetic issue, and stakeholders must rise up to the occasion. Some authors and publishers are using some mechanism to frustrate the war on piracy.
Any school involved in such an act is not run by our members. We want our products to do well and we know the importance of using textbooks that meet the curriculum needs of our students. Those involved in such act should he dealt with accordingly,” he said.