Last month, The Herald reported that teachers and pupils may face a major loss of IT services in new school year. Since then, additional concerns have been raised about the impact on users, costs for councils, and schools’ ability to deliver certain SQA exam courses.

Although the problems have been known about since last summer, there has been a lack of clarity of how schools, staff and young people will be affected, if at all.

What’s the problem?

According to a blog post on Glow – the country’s “national digital learning platform” – users would no longer be able to download and activate Microsoft Office tools after the 1st of August, 2024. The post explicitly warned that this change “affects all Glow users, both staff and students and may impact home devices as well as in-school devices.”

The problem has been caused by the withdrawal of a type of free Microsoft licence that had been available to all users of Glow. All users will still have access to the online version of Office software, but this does not include full functionality and some teachers have warned that specific SQA courses cannot be delivered using the more limited tools that will now be available.

What effect could it have?

In response to our reporting, COSLA – which represents Scotland’s councils – could only tell us that “Local Government is aware of this issue and are working with partners (including the Scottish Government and Education Scotland) to understand whether this will have any impact on provision of digital services within schools.”

The Scottish Government said it was “working closely with local authorities on this issue.” A spokesperson added:

“We provide central access to a range of free online services through Glow to support learners. Local authorities are responsible for the provision of education and any additional IT resources required by them are purchased locally to meet local circumstances.

“Regardless of each local authority’s licencing decisions, Glow users will continue to have access to a range of Microsoft applications from 1 August through the web.”

In an effort to clarify the situation across the country, The Herald contacted all 32 local authorities in Scotland in an attempt to clarify the situation facing staff and pupils. We asked each one to confirm if users would still have access to the full, offline version of Microsoft Office in the coming school year, and to clarify this for both in-school devices and personal devices.

Some councils responded directly to the questions while others issued statements. In some cases responses were unclear and The Herald sought further information.

Will in-school IT still work?

All councils who responded said staff and pupils would continued to have full access to offline versions of Microsoft Office from the start of the new school year on in-school and work-related devices. This means that desktop computers and council-issued laptops should still work, and users will be able to continue to use the full range of Microsoft Office tools.

However, we received no answer from Clackmannanshire, Renfrewshire or Scottish Borders councils, and have therefore been unable to confirm the situation for teachers and pupils in these areas.

Can staff and students still access Office on personal devices?

In most local authorities it will no longer be possible to use the full version of Office on personal devices – online access to a more limited range of tools is all that will be available.

In areas where staff are issued with council-owned laptops they will still have access to the offline software if working at home, but in areas without this provision teachers will have to choose between using the online tools and paying for personal access to desktop versions.

In some parts of the country, however, pupils and teachers will still be able to download the full version of Office and use it offline on personal devices.

Councils who confirmed that this would be the case are:

  • Aberdeen

  • Argyll & Bute

  • Dundee

  • Falkirk

  • Fife (for senior phase pupils who need it for their subjects)

  • Inverclyde

  • Perth and Kinross

  • West Lothian said that they are “currently exploring options for purchasing additional M365 licences which would provide greater flexibility for use offline and for SQA examinations.”

Teachers and pupils in other council areas will only have access to online versions of Microsoft Office on personal devices.

 

What have the councils said?

Aberdeen City Council:

“We have partnered with Microsoft to provide access to online and offline digital tools to support learning. This new solution will be rolled out to city schools and students will have access to the Microsoft 365 Suite of tools.

 "We have been in discussion with Education Scotland regarding the change of licensing for Glow users. We expect the impact of this change to be minimal and have taken steps to deploy our own Microsoft 365 tools for students.”

 

Aberdeenshire:

“If [pupils and teachers] have installed the software through GLOW then they may lose access on their personal device. We have no control over what young people or staff put onto their personal devices and this has never been promoted or advised as an alternative to what is already available for schools. We've not used Glow licences in this way from an IT perspective and have used our own licences for software installed on council owned assets.”

 

Angus:

A council spokesperson confirmed that full, offline access will continue on school devices, as this is provided “using a separate licence method” from Glow. They also confirmed that pupils and teachers will no longer be able to download and access the offline version of Office but argued that this “will cause little disruption as online versions were recommended on personal devices.”

 

Argyll and Bute:

“We have had our own Enterprise Agreement for Education with Microsoft for many years and this issue does not affect us.”

The council spokesperson also clarified that the council licence will allow pupils and staff to download Office to personal devices.

 

Dumfries and Galloway:

“The changes affect personal devices only, mainly when using these application from home. Our devices in schools are not affected. We were also asked to complete a questionnaire from Education Scotland via our Glow Key Contacts Group and we responded saying that the impact within our schools would be minor, affecting only those that bring in their own device to school.”

 

Dundee:

The council responded to our questions confirming that teachers and pupils will continue to enjoy full access to the offline version of Office both on in-school devices and personal devices.

 

East Ayrshire:

A council spokesperson confirm that the authority “currently have the full office package deployed to all our windows endpoints”, meaning that in school access to offline versions of the software will continue.

“Teachers will have offline access to the full office package on council laptop. Pupils will not have offline access on personal devices. They will still be able to use the GLOW online version.”

 

East Dunbartonshire:

The council confirmed that all pupils and teachers will still be able to use the full offline desktop version of Office on in-school and council-issued devices. They also confirmed that the ability to download the software to personal devices will end, but added that they are “looking at how we can help those affected.”

 

East Lothian:

“Our schools do not use Glow’s Microsoft Office A1 Plus licenses, so we are not impacted by this change. Access to Microsoft Office on personal devices has not been offered via the council. There is no change to this position after 1 August 2024.”

 

East Renfrewshire:

“Microsoft devices (laptops and desktops) across all of our schools and nurseries have a client install of the core Microsoft Office products.  This allows access to Office packages offline, with the programmes installed on the actual device.  The versions of Office products installed on these devices are more advanced versions, required for various courses, including for example, complex Excel work and Macros.

“Microsoft Office has only ever been available on personal devices through a pupil/staff GLOW credentials.  Due to the changes being introduced from 1 August, access will only be available online. 

“As part of the department's Digital Learning & Teaching Strategy, schools support pupils with the Bring Your Own Device.  This enables pupils to bring their own devices in to school and access the internet via in-school secure, filtered Wi-Fi. 

“The Education Department has contacted all head teachers to identify where there are any specific barriers to connectivity and support will be made available - this was the practice in place during the pandemic to support remote learning.

“For in-work/in-school devices, GLOW credentials were only used to access Microsoft Office on Chromebook devices.  As Chromebooks require an internet connection to function, the offline version was not used on these devices. 

“For all Microsoft devices, the client install would be used instead of any GLOW-accessed version of Office.  This provides offline access and continues to be available, being unaffected by the changes.

“The majority of access to Office is already through a client install on Microsoft devices (laptops and desktops).  This access is unaffected by the changes.

“Access via a Chromebook will continue to require an internet connection - this has always been the case due to the way Chromebooks operate.”

 

Edinburgh:

“This has not impacted the City of Edinburgh Council and our schools.”

The council spokesperson clarified that the council has its own Microsoft 365 tenancy and has access to “appropriate licences” to meet their needs. They added that Glow has only been used in a “very limited manner” and as an additional resource, not a part of the core provision in their schools.

 

Falkirk:

“Pupils and staff will need to re-validate their Microsoft Office download licence using their Falkirk Council network credentials if they previously used their Glow credentials to validate that licence. We will have this arrangement in place and be providing guidance at the start of the new session.”

The council spokesperson also confirmed that there had been no cost for this as the council had been able to enable a feature of its existing licence agreement.

 

Fife:

“In Fife, we have been working on a plan to mitigate the impact of this change to Microsoft licencing within Glow since June when we received final confirmation of the new licencing details.

“We have assessed the impacts of this change and note that it will have no impact to the Council’s school equipment or network infrastructure and will not significantly affect the delivery of the curriculum.

“The loss of the desktop applications will only affect some parts of the senior phase High School curriculum, which do require additional Microsoft functionality available in the desktop applications. We intend to have solutions to this in place by the start of the school year, by extending Fife Council’s existing agreements to include these products for impacted staff and learners.”

 

Glasgow:

“This change will not affect our classroom delivery as we have MS A3 licencing in place, so our MS Office applications in school ICT suites will not be affected.

“In addition, our managed iPads for P7 – S6 pupils and all teachers currently use the web version of MS Office – so again no impact.

“Where it will impact is Glow users – including staff and young people - who have downloaded the full version of MS Office for free via the Glow platform on personal devices.

“From the 1 August, this will no longer work, and they will have to use the web version and have access to the internet to do so.”

 

Highland:

“We are fully covered by our Microsoft EES (Enrolment for Education Services) agreement which provides A3 licensing for the devices we provide in schools. We provide a Chromebook device to all pupils from P5 to S6 which they can use at school or at home with access to various software applications including online Microsoft Office and Google Workspace.”

 

Inverclyde:

“We aren’t impacted as we have our own licenses.”

The council also explicitly confirmed that pupils and teachers will still be able to access the full offline desktop version of Microsoft Office on in-school devices and on personal devices.

 

Moray:

The council confirmed that all pupils and teachers will still be able to use the full offline desktop version of Office on in-school and council-issued devices. They also confirmed users will no longer be able to download and activate the full version of the software on personal devices.

 

Midlothian:

The council confirmed that all pupils and teachers will still be able to use the full offline desktop version of Office on in-school and council-issued devices. They also confirmed users will no longer be able to download and activate the full version of the software on personal devices.

 

Nan Eilean Siar:

“We are in the circumstances of having an existing dedicated licence arrangement for O365 covering all school devices, including individual 1-1 devices for all secondary pupils. We are largely unaffected by the change in the Glow licence arrangement other than alerting users that may have used these licences for personal devices.”

The council explicitly confirmed that the existing council licence only applies to council-owned devices.

 

North Ayrshire:

The council advised that they “envisage no issues within schools” in terms of access to the offline versions of Microsoft Office, but confirmed that only online versions will be available on personal devices.

 

North Lanarkshire:

“In preparation for the upcoming changes, additional Office for Education A3 licenses were purchased to ensure continued seamless operations.”

 

Orkney:

“Whilst our assessment is that there will be little impact on our schools from this change, there are some issues for our itinerant teachers who may be wanting to work offline whilst travelling. We're currently working through an action plan which will seek to minimise the impact on these staff and expect this to be resolved before the start of the new term.  We’re thankful to Education Scotland for the support that they are providing.”

 

Perth and Kinross:

“We are aware of the implications that the impending changes to the Microsoft licensing will have for staff and young people.  At present our IT teams are working closely with Microsoft to establish a workaround to enable uninterrupted access to the full versions and functionality of Office 365 tools and Microsoft Access.”

 

Shetland:

“We use our own Microsoft licensing and so have not been relying on GLOW for access to Microsoft Office. All teachers are provided with a laptop, which is fully licensed for Microsoft Office by the council. All school supplied pupil laptops are also fully licensed.

“We don’t currently allow personal devices on our network and don’t have a BYOD policy for personal computers. Therefore, anyone who has chosen to install GLOW Office Licenses on their own personal machines will be subject to GLOW’s license limitations.”

 

South Ayrshire:

“South Ayrshire pupils will continue to have access to the full suite of Microsoft desktop apps (including Access and Publisher) on all school laptops and desktops. We provide this as part of our Council wide licence with Microsoft.

“Pupils and staff will no longer be able to install Office 365 onto personal devices (the desktop apps) for free using their Glow email address. If they’ve already installed Office 365 on personal devices it will no longer work as their Glow email address won’t be recognised to authenticate the applications.

“All pupils and staff will continue to be able to access the online apps using their Glow email address on personal devices (either via Glow or office.com), however this won’t include Access and Publisher.”

 

South Lanarkshire:

The council confirmed that all pupils and teachers will still be able to use the full offline desktop version of Office on in-school and council-issued devices. They also confirmed users will no longer be able to download and activate the full version of the software on personal devices.

 

Stirling:

“We anticipate minimal disruption to access for digital learning in Stirling’s schools as they primarily use Google resources.

“As our schools do not use the Glow licensing scheme to cover desktop access, and only use it for email and specialised resources for education staff, we don’t anticipate they will impacted by the expiration of the free licence.”

 

West Dunbartonshire:

“We have a separate licencing agreement with Microsoft.  Our primary learning environment is Google Workspace, and as such MS licence changes have had little to no impact on our operations.”

The council also confirmed that all pupils and teachers will still be able to use the full offline desktop version of Office on in-school and council-issued devices, but that users will no longer be able to download and activate the full version of the software on personal devices.

 

West Lothian:

“We are aware of the changes to Microsoft 365 applications for schools, and have made our staff aware of them.

“We expect the impact on schools to be minimal, as pupils and staff will still have access to the same desktop apps on school devices. Pupils are encouraged to use the web apps when working from home.

“We are currently exploring options for purchasing additional M365 licences, which would provide greater flexibility for use offline and for SQA examinations.”