EDUCATION Minister Peter Weir has been urged to act “quickly” and “decisively” in the wake of A-level and AS results announced on Thursday.
Mr Weir and NI exams body CCEA will be appearing before Stormont’s Education Committee on Friday.
More than a third of estimated grades allocated by teachers to students here were lowered in the final results.
It has left principals, teachers and students furious that the results were changed.
Principals have accused exams board CCEA of “patronising” teachers for changing the results they had predicted for their students.
Education committee vice-chair Karen Mullan said questions would be asked at the committee.
“We have been asking for them to publish the method that they use and we have yet to see that, so we would like to see the method that was used, how the grades were calculated, how the algorithm was used,” said the Foyle MLA.
“We need to see all of that detail.
Education Minister Peter Weir to face Education Committee today of A Level results debacle
The Sinn Féin MLA said she would ask the minister to “act quickly”.
“I am hoping that when he comes to the committee today he will be listening and he will be looking to act decisively.”
About 28,000 pupils across Northern Ireland received their results on Thursday morning.
While the proportion of A* to A A-level grades rose by 2.3%, 37% of estimated grades were lowered; 5.3% were raised.
This year’s results were estimated after exams were cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Last year, 45.8% of estimated grades provided by schools matched the student’s final results.
This year, 58% of A-level and AS results matched the estimated grades.
After the exams were cancelled, examination body CCEA asked teachers to give a predicted grade for their pupils and then rank them in order within their class.
It then used other data to standardise the results. For A-levels, the model used pupils’ AS-level results and re-sit data.
A similar system was used in England, where 36% of entries had a lower grade than teachers predicted.
In Northern Ireland, the proportion of A* grades increased by 1%.
A* to A grades rose by 2.3%. The overall percentage pass rate rose by 0.8%.
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