A level and GCSE exams in the North of Ireland will not go ahead this summer due to the coronavirus pandemic, but pupils will still get results, the Education Minister has announced.
Peter Weir said pupils would still receive “fair, equitable results that reflect their hard work”.
CCEA, with the other awarding organisations, will develop a “robust process for awarding grades”, he said.
On Wednesday it was announced that NI schools will close from Monday, March 23.
It was also revealed that a limited number of schools will open for the children of healthcare workers.
Mr Weir said the system that would be used to award grades would be “a combination of prior achievements, internal assessments predicted grades, analysis and modelling of existing data trends to provide the necessary assurance about the robustness, accuracy and fairness of the grades awarded.”
“We will also work with further and higher education sectors to ensure arrangements are put in place to allow them to operate admissions processes as efficiently as possible”.
He also said the school closure did “not mean the end of education”.
Teachers will continue to be working throughout this period and remote learning will be provided.
Mr Weir said on Thursday that after next week, the scheme will be expanded to the children of other key staff, citing haulage workers as an example.
He said a list of key workers was being compiled.
For other pupils, Mr Weir emphasised that there “will be teaching through online resources”.
“The aim throughout this process is for teaching to continue, and for teaching to continue to the end of the academic year on this basis,” he said.
“If you’re a health care worker, working for the health service, it is likely that there will be that availability, we can accommodate that.
“In terms of key workers for overall Northern Ireland plc, what we will be doing is working with each department very quickly to establish the list of categories of key workers.
“Schools will be contacted, because they have the data on every parent.
“They will be contacting parents on the basis of ‘do you fit into one of these categories, do you want to avail of a place?'”
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