CORONAVIRUS: Decision on exam grades due 'within days' says Education Minister

By Rebecca Black

A decision is due within days on how state examination grades will be decided in the absence of written papers this summer.

Exam boards in England announced two weeks ago that results would rely on predicted grades.

Stormont Education minister Peter Weir said a decision pertaining to exams set by the Northern Ireland exams board CCEA was imminent.

Meanwhile Derek Baker, the permanent secretary of the department of education, said that the bodies which set the post primary transfer tests are "urgently" looking at options for this autumn's tests.

He added that those tests are outside the control of his department.

The developments emerged at a sitting of the Stormont education committee on Wednesday.

Mr Weir and Mr Baker joined the meeting remotely for questions from MLAs.

Pressed on when a decision will be announced about how grades for GCSE and A-Level exams will be made this year, Mr Weir responded saying there is a desire "to ensure we get the fairest possible prediction" for pupils.

He said the department has been consulting with key stakeholders including the teacher unions and the Education Authority.

"In one sense we could have simply jumped ahead and produced something but we felt it was important that we got buy-in, which largely speaking is there," he told the committee, adding that advice is currently being finalised.

"I would anticipate a very imminent announcement on that within the next couple of days."

Asked about whether post primary school transfer tests due to be sat in the autumn will be delayed, Mr Baker responded: "It's not a direct responsibility of the department, all I can say on that issue is that I know the two organisations which deliver the transfer tests on behalf of some schools are looking very very hard at this and are considering all of the options because they realise that if things do not return to normal in the autumn, there is a big problem with this.

"They are considering this and we are keeping an eye on what they are doing. But these are not our tests, we don't regulate them, we don't impose them and we don't provide for them.

"But we are aware that the organisations are looking at this urgently."

Earlier the committee heard that between 650 to 800 children are attending schools every day during the coronavirus lockdown.

Schools across Northern Ireland were closed as part of social distancing measures in the fight against the spread of Covid-19.

However some have remained open to supervise vulnerable children as well as the children of frontline workers.

Mr Baker said the number of children attending schools tends to be around 650 to 800 children.

The figure dropped over the Easter weekend, and on Tuesday, just 217 children attended schools.