AFTER weeks and months of resisting calls from parents, politicians and in particular students, Education Minister Peter Weir has finally agreed to cancel this year’s GCSE and A Level exams.
Minister Weir, who had resisted continuous calls for the exams to be cancelled, finally decided to pull the plug after similar decisions were taken in England and Scotland, stating it would now be unfair to disadvantage students here by making them take their exams. His announcement came just days before pupils were due to sit their first round of assessments this week.
With the Covid pandemic showing no sign of abating any time soon, and students once learning from home, the decision has been widely welcomed.
Scrap exams for the sake of students, pleads councillor Posted: 12:00 pm December 18, 2020
By Roisin Henderson
THERE have been increasing calls for next year’s GCSE and A Level exams to be scrapped.
Last week Cllr Sheamus Greene, pictured below, who is a father and a school bus driver, calling on the exams to be cancelled and for the North to follow the Welsh model of continuous assessment this academic year.
Cllr Greene’s motion stated that “due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, Fermanagh and Omagh District Council recognises the unprecedented stress that has been placed on this year’s GCSE and A Level students.”