December a problem with Microsoft affecting students could take ‘weeks’ to fix

A Microsoft issue affecting schoolchildren in Scotland during their first days of homeschooling could take several weeks to resolve.

According to Education Scotland, a few weeks away from the implementation of a permanent solution for the “join” button on Microsoft Teams.

There were also reports of delays within the chat feature.

This comes after a separate team issue affected pupils in Scotland.

Several schools reported that the technology did not run slowly or not at all on Monday. Education Scotland said this issue was resolved later that evening.

Prime Minister Nicola Sturgeon said the government continues to liaise with the company to solve problems.

Microsoft Teams is one of the major platforms used for distance education, with schools closed to most students until at least early February.

In December, the firm received complaints about problems with the ‘join’ button and the chat update, which according to the Scottish Government still affects a “small number of users”.

On Monday, a number of schools, pupils and parents reported that the technology was running slow or not at all.

Microsoft said engineers are working to fix the problem. The company did not want to respond to the question of whether the question due to homeschooling is causing the problem.

One Edinburgh primary school sent a text to parents on Tuesday saying: “Microsoft still has issues with the Teams application. This is a national issue and will hopefully be resolved soon.”

The BBC has approached Microsoft for an update but has not yet received a response.

Education Scotland, the Scottish government agency responsible for improving education, said in an update on its website that it continues to work with the firm.

The report reads: ‘We have continued to work with Microsoft’s technical team to resolve the interrupt with the connect button that affected a small number of users.

“We can confirm that Microsoft is a few weeks away from implementing a permanent solution to this. In the meantime, continue with the manual and where we can expedite any work we will do.

“During a few meetings, we received a small number of reports of delays within the chat feature. Microsoft is exploring ways to improve the user experience, but it works as designed.

“There are changes in operational usage that can be implemented by our users to improve their experience. If anyone needs help with this, contact the help desk for more information.”

Ms Sturgeon reiterated during Tuesday’s daily briefing that the issue “does not just affect education or just Scotland”.

She said her cabinet received a brief report from the education secretary that morning.

“We’re still in talks with Microsoft,” she said. “Microsoft has given the assurance that it will be resolved and will hopefully be resolved soon.

“It’s not a problem with Glow, a Scottish government source.”

Glow gives users access to Microsoft Office 365 – which includes Teams – and G Suite applications like Google Classroom. Local authorities decide what to use between Microsoft and G Suite.

Me. Sturgeon added that the Microsoft issue “clearly makes things more difficult than it already was” for parents, young people and teachers.