SUMMER A-level and GCSE exams have been cancelled due to the Covid-19 outbreak.
A letter was sent to all school principals outlining the Department of Education's position on a range of issues.
These included salaries, youth services and examinations.
Schools across the north will close to almost all pupils from Monday. A limited number will stay open for the children of healthcare workers.
It had been announced on Wednesday that exams in England and Wales would be cancelled this year.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson said there were still plans for pupils to receive qualifications.
Hundreds of pupils in the north sit exams by English and Welsh boards, although the majority of papers taken are set by the north's CCEA.
Education Minister Peter Weir said yesterday following advice from officials, there would be no GCSEs, AS-levels and A-levels this summer.
Mr Weir said pupils would continue to be graded. While further work is required on exactly how this will work, it is likely to involve a combination of prior achievement, predicted grades and teacher assessment.
Earlier, the head of the north's top-performing non-grammar school last year, based on GCSE results, expressed concerns.
Gary Kelly from St Kevin's College in Lisnaskea, said sixth formers were at "the crucial point in the whole education system".
"I would l to see some clarity for children who have worked very, very hard for five or seven years," Mr Kelly said.
Universities called for clarity on the implications of cancelling exams with Alistair Jarvis, chief executive of Universities UK, saying students should not lose out on the opportunity to go on to higher education this year because of the challenges posed by the pandemic.
Ucas Chief Executive Clare Marchant said the admissions body had received thousands of queries from concerned pupils and parents. She said there would be more information would be issued on Friday.
"Rest assured, we are working with government and many organisations across the four countries to get answers to those queries as soon as possible," she said.
One of the unregulated transfer test groups, the Association for Quality Education (AQE), said children should continue to plan for grammar school entrance exams due to be held in November.
"Our advice to schools, parents and pupils is to continue to prepare for the tests in the home environment and AQE will monitor the situation over the coming days and weeks," said Chief Executive Darrin Barr.
"We will keep all stakeholders informed of any developments or changes through the website and via the schools. We offer everyone best wishes and good health as we face this threat together."
In the Republic, Education Minister Joe McHugh said that despite oral and practical state exams being cancelled, he expected the main written exams to go ahead as normal in June.
"We are still working on the basis that the Leaving Cert will go ahead as normal in June," he said.
Schools are likely to remain closed to pupils for the rest of the academic year.
The INTO teachers union said work had begun to prepare resource material for a period of prolonged closure.
Lessons will continue to be delivered through online resources and packs sent home with children.
"Teachers will follow reasonable instruction from their school principal in relation to managing the distance learning of pupils," said northern secretary Gerry Murphy.
"Principals and teachers must be careful to allow for their own domestic and family circumstances to be accommodated in the changed learning environment."
Meanwhile, a special school principal has said school closures may detrimentally affect many of that sector's pupils.
Raymond McFeeters from Castle Tower school in Ballymena said many young people may struggle.
"For the majority of our schools in the special school sector they need routine, they need to have very strict boundaries and they don't deal with change very easily," he said.
"It is not just a matter of putting a teacher and a classroom assistant in front of them."
