Oxford University Press has made all of their CSEC and CAPE textbooks freely available for online reading!
TRUE.
FULL STORY
A popular claim was circulated on social media including Facebook and WhatsApp claiming Oxford University Press has made all of their Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) and Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE) books free for online reading.
The post reads: “Oxford University Press has made all of their CSEC and CAPE textbooks freely available for online reading! Share with anyone who may benefit, including friends and family overseas.
Variations of this claim posted around September 5 and 9 on blog posts here, here and here claim the company made all of their primary & secondary school, O-Level, A-Level, CSEC and CAPE textbooks freely available.
VERIFICATION
Checks by Nigerian Tribune showed that the posts link to the Oxford University Press website.
Upon enquiries by Nigerian Tribune, the Marketing Campaign Manager, Caribbean & Latin America International Education at the Oxford University Press, Muzaffar Bhatti, via e-mail said the books were made available as the COVID-19 crisis hit education establishments in a significant way, thereby causing the closure of schools across the globe and expediting the shift to digital learning.
He further said: “We looked for ways to support our teachers and learners. It has been clear to us that supporting distanced learning needs is absolutely intrinsic to our mission, and our teams across OUP have been working hard to identify ways to carry on meeting the needs of our customers and learners in this period of disruption.
“We provided free temporary access to some of our student books and resources via a secure digital platform, which remain available until the 30th September, 2020. We have been in frequent communication with our customers who have accessed these resources and have our teams available to assist customers in this next transition.”
When pressed further to ascertain what kind of books are available, Mary Hunter and Lesley Smith of Oxford University Press’ Customer Service unit directed Nigerian Tribune to a post on their website.
A check on the web page showed that the available books were categorized under five sections ― Primary, Secondary, IB Programme, Cambridge Assessment International, Caribbean.
CONCLUSION
Claim that Oxford University Press has made all the CSEC and CAPE textbooks free for all to read online is true. This offer, however, ends September 30, 2020.
The researcher produced this fact-check per the Dubawa 2020 Fellowship partnership with The Nigerian Tribune to facilitate the ethos of “truth” in journalism and enhance media literacy in the country.
