Northern Ireland

Exam chiefs to consult on `predicted grades' appeals

Summer exams have been cancelled
Summer exams have been cancelled Summer exams have been cancelled

EXAMS chiefs planning to award predicted grades to pupils this summer are asking the public to help them devise an appeals process.

GCSE, AS-level, A-level and vocational exams have all been cancelled due to Covid-19.

Instead, results will be based on a combination of information provided by schools and statistical data.

Young people will receive their grades on the pre-planned results days in August.

Most students in Northern Ireland usually take exams set by the Council for the Curriculum, Examinations and Assessment (CCEA).

When Education Minister Peter Weir announced that calculated grades would be used, he instructed CCEA to develop an appropriate and robust appeals process.

CCEA has now launched a public consultation on "an alternative appeals process for the summer 2020 awarding of GCSE, AS and A-level qualifications".

The consultation, which will be open until May 21, will allow interested groups or individuals to comment on a wide range of principles to be considered in determining a final appeals process.

It is expected that in addition to students, parents, teachers and schools directly involved with this summer's qualifications that other respondees will include third level education providers, potential employers and representative bodies, who will be using the grades in their various decision making processes.

"This summer students' grades will be calculated using a combination of teacher estimated grades and statistical data," said CCEA Chief Executive, Justin Edwards.

"Because there will be no examination scripts to mark, it will therefore not be possible to have a review of the marking process post results as in previous years. The minister has asked us to develop an alternative appeals process which will address these exceptional circumstances and which will be in line with similar processes being developed by Ofqual and Qualifications Wales.

"Our primary goal this summer is to award students with grades which fairly reflect their work, thus enabling them to progress towards further education, employment or other pathways. We recognise that not every student will be content with their grade and where this is the case it is very important that the appeals process is fair, open and transparent. In achieving that aim we would encourage all interested parties to respond to our consultation so that the final agreed appeals process will be as robust and equitable as possible."

The online consultation can be found at www.ccea.org.uk. Responses should be submitted by 5pm on Thursday May 21.