The Cambridge University Press (CUP) have donated 100,000 UK primary school books to the charity Book Aid International, finding a laudable solution for outdated and unused school textbooks.

This London-based organisation sends new yet unsold books to libraries in some of the world’s poorest countries. Among them are 12 sub-Saharan African countries, the Palestinian territories and Sri Lanka.

As a library charity Book Aid International is dependent on donations by large press houses such as CUP, Oxford University Press, Orion and Wiley to supply school libraries, prisons, refugee camps and community centres.

“Each year, our warehouse turns over around 750,000 books, so one single donation of 100,000 is a big logistical challenge,” explains Jacqui Scott, head of fundraising and communication at Book Aid International.

“CUP has agreed to stagger the deliveries into 3-tonne weekly shipments, which means that we can handle them much more easily,” she continued.

According to Heidi Mulvey, Community and University Relations Manager at CUP, all the books are in perfect condition, but older than five years and therefore no longer part of the current UK curriculum.

As the curriculum in many African schools especially is close to the UK’s, these books are useful as supplementary books in school libraries.

Not everyone is enthusiastic about the move, however. Priya Khetarpal, a student from St. John’s College, disagrees with the scheme.

“I don't think that donating books from Western countries to developing countries is particularly useful,” she said.

Having taught in Kenya, a country supported by Book Aid International, Ms. Khetarpal told Varsity that these donated, new books were hardly ever used.

She explained that, “The books in our school were written in 'Kenyan English' that the children could understand,” going on to explain that, “Books from the UK are likely to be in a different style which they would struggle to read, even for recreation.”