The aim of the ATNP is to be "an ecumenical press serving the church in Africa and the Diaspora through affordable, high-quality, scholarly publications accessible on the continent and globally" The ATNP is a centralised commissioning and editorial unit, based in Nairobi. The material will then be distributed across Africa to be printed locally. In this way, the ATNP will overcome the problems of localised publishing, which has the unfortunate consequence that books rarely make it outside of the country in which they are published. The ATNP will also address the dependence of African theological study and teaching on publications from the Global North. Too often, African theology is published in the global North and never returned to Africa, or if it is, it's returned at prices that few African Christians can afford. The ATNP will publish theology, written by Africans on topics that matter to African Christians. The SPCK has always been actively engaged in worldwide mission, but this innovative approach reflects the extraordinary growth of Christianity in Africa. No longer is mission an asymmetrical process of giving and receiving, but a mutually beneficial experience. There is much that Christians in the UK can learn from joyful expression of African Christianity. The SPCK hopes that, by supporting the sustainable development of the ATNP, they will "unlock the treasure trove of African Christian thought for Africa and the whole world"   The Scottish sister society, the Society in Scotland for Propagating Christian Knowledge (SSPCK), was formed by royal charter in 1709 as a separate organisation with the purpose of founding schools "where religion and virtue might be taught to young and old" in the Scottish Highlands and other "uncivilised" areas of the country. It was intended to counter the threat of Catholic missionaries achieving "a serious landslide to Rome" and of growing Highland Jacobitism. Their schools were a valuable addition to the Church of Scotland programme of education in Scotland, which was based on a tax on landowners to provide a school in every parish. Some—but by no means all—Society schoolmasters were inferior in comparison to burgh and parish schools, however, "particularly in [their] acquaintance with the Evangelical System" rather than more pragmatic literacy, numeracy and teaching ability. The SSPCK had five schools by 1711, 25 by 1715, 176 by 1758 and 189 by 1808, by then with 13,000 pupils attending. At first the SSPCK avoided using the Gaelic language, with the result that pupils ended up learning by rote without understanding what they were reading.