1. The agreement between the Department of Basic Education (DBE) and Microsoft (MS) expired on the 30 June 2010 and MS introduced a discounted, costed model for the software for schools.
2. The Western Cape Education Department (WCED) has negotiated a declining discount model on behalf of the Western Cape's public schools and, as a result, the WCED has entered into a 3-year contract (renewable for a further 2 years) with MS through the PGWC Large Account Reseller (LAR), First Technology. The contract is effective from 1 July 2010 until 30 June 2015.
3. The WCED will pay the licence amount on behalf of schools directly to MS, through the approved Western Cape LAR, for the duration of the contract period. There will be no cost implications to the schools for the selected MS products.
4. The MS products covered by the new MS schools agreement are listed below:

PRODUCT
Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard (64Bit - only)
Windows Server Client Access License (DvcCAL)
Forefront Threat Management Gateway (TMG) 2010 (64Bit - only)
Windows 7 Professional (64Bit) Upgrade
Windows 7 Professional (32Bit) Upgrade
Office Professional Plus 2010 (64Bit)
Office Professional Plus 2010 (32Bit)
Visual Studio Express
Digital Literacy Curriculum
Microsoft Learning Suite
5. Please note that schools are allowed to make use of earlier versions of the above selected MS products, but no media kits for the earlier versions will be made available by WCED's Edumedia.
6. Schools will be required to place an order for the selected media kit with Edumedia by completing the order form for MS products (ANNEXURE A). Schools can choose to collect the selected media kit from Edumedia or the kit can be posted to them, provided the order form is completed in full. Orders can be placed as from 1 February 2011.
7. Should schools require additional MS products, they will be required to sign individual contracts with MS, through their authorised education reseller (https://aer.microsoft.com/aer/default.aspx), and make the necessary budget provision for the payment for additional products.
8. Please find attached as ANNEXURE B, information on the MS Learning Suite for schools, including links to additional free educational resources and programmes which support learning and teaching.
9. Schools may offer limited Work at Home (WAH) rights to their teachers for work-related purposes only at no extra licence cost.
10. Schools will incur some costs for obtaining and distributing the WAH media kit - the costs are estimated at R125.00 (subject to applicable $R exchange rate).
11. Schools may purchase and distribute one copy of each applicable CD-ROM or disk set to each authorised user. You can purchase these CDs or disk sets (known as "student media") from your reseller in quantities not exceeding the number of new licensed PCs in your school. The LAR is First Technology (tel. 021 525 7000) and the contact person is either Rushni Appo or Helena du Preez.
12. Schools that make use of WAH need to ensure that each participating teacher

  1. is assigned a complete copy of the WAH media;
  2. signs the MS School Agreement Work at Home Acceptance Form (ANNEXURE C), and ensures that it is signed by the school principal, and that the school stamp appears on the form.
13. Principals are reminded that staff with WAH rights must deactivate the software when leaving the schools permanently.
14. Teachers who are part of the Teacher Laptop Initiative (TLI) should not make use of the WAH rights, as the TLI packages make provision for similar software.
15. Should you require technical assistance, please call the IT Helpdesk at tel. no. 021 900 7123.
16. For further information, please contact the telephone number indicated on the letterhead above.


SIGNED: PENNY VINJEVOLD
HEAD: EDUCATION
DATE: 2011:01:31

Annexure A: Microsoft schools agreement product selection order form  (size: 87 KB)
Annexure B: Learning Suite for Schools  (size: 138 KB)
Annexure C: MS School Agreement Work at Home Acceptance Form  (size: 10 KB)