By 
THIS afternoon’s dramatic U-turn on the awarding of A-Level grades in the North has been hailed as a “win for our young people”.
A short time ago, the Department for Education confirmed all A-Level and AS candidates in Northern Ireland taking qualifications through the Council for the Curriculum, Examinations and Assessment (CCEA) would now be awarded the higher of the grades submitted by their centre or the grade calculated by CCEA.
Education Minister, Peter Weir, said, “CCEA is working to release the revised results to candidates as quickly as possible. In the interim, students will be able to access details of their Centre Assessed Grade from their school or college.”
West Tyrone MLA, Daniel McCrossan, the SDLP’s education spokesperson, said this announcement was “a win for our teachers and their professional judgement, but most importantly, a win for our young people”.
Mr McCrossan said, “While I welcome the eventual positive result, I do deeply regret the anxiety and distress this has caused for our young people over the last number of days. It was unnecessary and highly unfair. The Education Minister should offer a full and genuine apology, to our young people for causing this distress and to our teachers, for the way their professional judgement was cast aside.”
Read more on this developing story in this week’s Ulster Herald, out on Thursday.