Universities could come under "a bit of pressure" if there is a reversal of the education minister's decision to use standardisation for A-level grades, according to Queen's University Professor of Education Tony Gallagher.

He told Talkback he believes a "backtracking" is "almost inevitable".

This, he explained, would lead to "an increase in the overall profile of grades" which will have consequences for universities.

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Prof Gallagher said this could require additional funding.

"Given the way that money has been spent, quite properly, in all sorts of different areas to try and deal with this crisis, this is just another example of that," he outlined.

"The quicker we can make this decision around A-levels the better."

The chief executive of Retail NI says there has been around 80-90% compliance with face mask wearing in shops in Northern Ireland.

"We're pleased that obviously the shoppers have got the message that they are legally required to wear face coverings and I think that is good because ultimately it is going to be a challenge to police something like this," Glyn Roberts explained on Talkback.

"The biggest challenge that we face in many respects is complacency."

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Mr Roberts adds that there have been a few instances "of customers arguing and verbally abusing each other in store over not wearing face coverings", but he hopes such clashes can be "kept to a bare minimum".

He says the regulations are "awkward" for retailers, but it is not up to staff or retail owners to police mask wearing.

"It is very much up to the civic responsibility of the individual shopper," he continued.

Dr Gabriel Scally, from the Independent SAGE group of scientific experts, says there is a "general acceptance now" that face masks are effective.

"They are that physical barrier to the transmission of the virus, but they're also a behavioural hint - they make it clear the virus is still around, they make it clear that people are concerned about it," he told Talkback.

"It's wrong to look at any one thing as the answer to the problem.

"The answer is a broad public health approach."

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The Professor of Public Health at the University of Bristol says he can understand why there has been an increase in cases, "because we've loosened all that social restriction, so it is almost inevitable".

"That mindset of lifting restrictions is a really dangerous one to take hold."

More than 100,000 people have signed up to take part in future NHS trials of a coronavirus vaccine - but more volunteers are needed, researchers say.

They want as many people as possible to enrol, to speed up their efforts to find a safe and effective jab.

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And they are particularly looking for more volunteers from the "high-priority groups" disproportionately affected by the virus - those belonging to ethnic minorities or aged over 65.

Kate Bingham, who chairs the UK's vaccine taskforce, said: "These trials are safe, please sign up.

A number of trials are expected to begin this autumn in the UK.

Read more here

Alliance Party MLA Kellie Armstrong says people "are getting a bit complacent" about coronavirus, however, she says the number of new cases shows that people need to remain alert.

"How many times a day do we wash our hands compared to what we did in March?" she asked on Talkback.

"In March, the reason why people were told not to wear their masks was because we were staying in our homes, we were in lockdown."

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She continued: "We're not in lockdown anymore, so we have to do whatever we can as possible within society to protect ourselves and our families.

"Let's not put our nurses and doctors on the frontline back into the situation they faced in March and April, which was horrendous."

Thousands of holidaymakers have seen their plans thrown into chaos after UK quarantine measures were imposed on a list of new countries from Saturday.

The 14-day isolation requirement now applies to people arriving from France, the Netherlands, Monaco, Malta, Turks and Caicos, and Aruba.

University lecturer Ernst de Mooij is among those who must quarantine after returning to Northern Ireland from a visit to the Netherlands to see his parents.

The new measures were announced during his trip although he had made some plans to stay home ahead of time, due a spike in cases.

"Luckily I can work from home and prepare my lectures for the next semester," he said.

"Before I left, I made sure I had enough food for two weeks and have a grocery delivery booked in a few days so I can get some fresh stuff as well.

"The main thing I miss will be being able to walk outside because for the last months, that has been one of those nice things to relax after work."

He said he stayed with his parents as much as possible during his trip.

"If I hadn’t gone now it would have been nine or 10 months before I could see them again, so I am happy I visited them," he said.

Jayne McCormack
BBC News NI political reporter

The Stormont Assembly will meet tomorrow at midday to discuss the ongoing dispute over exam results in Northern Ireland.

It follows a recall petition signed by a majority of parties to return ahead of the end of summer recess.

The Speaker Alex Maskey confirmed the decision in a letter to MLAs this morning.

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Sinn Féin MLA John O'Dowd has welcomed the announcement by Education Minister Peter Weir that GCSE results in NI will be solely based on grades provided by teachers.

Mr O'Dowd, a former education minister, said Mr Weir had made the right decision around GCSEs and must now look at the A-level and AS-level results.

"What we need is a resolution," he said.

"The minister has now shown what that resolution can be like and that resolution is allowing A-level predictions to be based on AS grades or the teachers' grading."

Face coverings are to be made optional within courtrooms in Northern Ireland, but mandatory within public spaces in courts or tribunal service buildings.

The guidance has been issued by the Department of Justice today.

It said their use in public spaces in their buildings was mandated as those were the areas people were most likely to meet people they would not meet ordinarily.

Courtrooms have already been set up for social distancing with capacity reduced.

Judges may ask those in the courtoom to remove facial coverings for identification purposes, if they are presenting evidence or if someone who relies on lip reading or facial expressions needs to see that person.

All school pupils are to return to school at the beginning of term, but protocols over coronavirus testing and outbreaks have yet to be confirmed.

Speaking on the Stephen Nolan show, Education Minister Peter Weir said parents should err on the side of caution and not send children to school if they are unsure whether they have Covid or flu-like symptoms.

Mr Weir also said a 90 minute test for Covid may be available for schools at the end of August, but the Public Health Agency did not confirm this.

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Dr Chris Smith, a virologist at University of Cambridge told the programme there was the same problem in hospitals - "we don't know whether they've got some trivial cold-like thing that's going to be here today, gone tomorrow, whether it's full blown flu or this season whether they have coronavirus."

He also said the 90 minute test which gives either a negative or positive result for Covid-19 was available in hospitals, but that it was an expensive option.

The Northern Ireland Children's Commissioner Koulla Yiasouma says she has signed a letter sent out to all UK universities, asking them to honour the conditional offers made to students prior to their A-level results.

The way in which young people have been treated in the awarding of A-level grades is not acceptable, she told Radio Ulster's Nolan Show.

"We've seen far too many young people give too many examples of quite bizarre grades... the system is clearly flawed," she said.

Since last week, the alarm bells had been sounded about upcoming GCSE grades, she said.

"We have been inundated with calls from principals and young people worried about GCSE grades - particularly from schools who were showing quite marked improvements in recent years and they were worried whether that wouldn't be taken into account."

Ms Yiasouma says teacher assessment should be the primary tool for determining grades.

"The students of 2020 are special... no other student has been through this experience.

"We are calling on all universities to honour the conditional offers they made to those young people.

"We sent a letter to every single university in the UK asking them to honour the conditional offers as this system has clearly not been fair."

A Londonderry school principal says the education minister should revisit AS and A Level qualfications after today's announcement about GCSEs.

GCSE results in NI will be solely based on grades provided by teachers, the education minister has said.

Michael Allen, principal of Lisneal College, said he commended the move "as far as GCSE and level two equivalents are concerned".

"But we do need to revisit the AS and A Level qualifications in my opinion," he said.

"If we can trust teachers' judgement at GCSE why can we not trust the same teachers' judgement at AS and A Level?"

A GCSE student at Larne Grammar School says he is "extremely relieved" by today's announcement about GCSE grading.

"The anxiety that I have gone through in the past couple of days has been absolutely horrendous", the student named Peter told The Nolan Show.

"I've lost sleep over this. I have been, before today, worrying about what is going to happen on Thursday after the sheer fiasco that we saw on Thursday of last week with the A and AS level results.

"It was just sheer relief this morning."

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"Of course I welcome what minister Weir has done this morning, it is the right step, but it should not have taken five days for this to happen after the A-level and AS results," he adds.

"It should not have taken the amount of pressure that was exerted over the weekend and this morning.

"It really does show that Peter Weir seems to be completely oblivious to what is going on around him."

BBC News NI has put together a guide on how the grades were issued last Thursday - some 27,791 of them.

The majority of the results (86%) were issued by the Northern Ireland awarding body, the Council for the Curriculum, Examinations and Assessment (CCEA).

The remaining 14% of results were from exams set by other UK awarding bodies.

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Different factors were taken into account in the calculation of results:

• Teachers were asked to predict the grades they thought pupils would have achieved had exams gone ahead using information including coursework, mock exams and homework
• Schools were also asked to rank pupils in each subject
• Schools then submitted that data to CCEA, which said it standardised results to ensure that grades in 2020 were of equal value to those awarded in other years
• CCEA's calculations included reference to the student's performance at AS level

Find out more with our Q&A here.

TUV leader Jim Allister has said the education minister has "dug himself into an impossible situation".

"He is right to accept teacher graces for GCSEs but the follow-through logic is that if you accept the professionalism and dependability of teacher assessing at GCSE, then you cannot, in the next breath, say that we don't accept that at A-level," he said.

Mr Allister told Radio Ulster's Nolan Show that minister Peter Weir needed to "complete the U-turn that he started and recognise that the only way out of this is to honour the assessments made by the professional teachers who know these pupils, not some algorithm".

He said the victims of the situation are young people at A-level and this needed to be addressed.

The chair of the assembly's education committee says AS and A-level pupils should be awarded whichever grade is higher, their teacher assessed grade or the one awarded by CCEA.

Alliance Party MLA Chris Lyttle says he doesn't accept there will be "grade inflation" if the marks are determined within schools.

"It has been acknowledged that incorrect results have been awarded," he told The Nolan Show referring to the dispute over standardisation.

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"The minister's referring to the appeals process as a way to address these incorrect results," Mr Lyttle continued.

"My understanding is that university places are at risk for pupils with every passing day.

"The appeals process cannot address that situation in the time that it has available to it."

SDLP education spokesman Daniel McCrossan has welcomed the minister's move over GCSEs.

But he said there was a "huge and considerable question" to be asked about A and AS-level grades.

"After digging his heels in, I welcome the fact Minister Weir has realised his algorithm does not stand up to scrutiny and decided to trust our teacher and their professional judgement," he said.

“However, while this is a positive move, it is not the end of the journey. The SDLP will continue to fight for A-level students, many of whom feel their futures have been stolen from them and been awarded grades that do not accurately reflect their ability or work ethic.”

Mr McCrossan said the assembly had been recalled and his party would be fighting for a "just solution" for A-level students.

Prof Ian Young says local lockdowns might be needed to combat rising levels of coronavirus infection.

"I think we are getting close to the point where, certainly, in those areas with the highest levels of cases that we may have to consider whether any additional local measures are required," said Northern Ireland’s chief scientific adviser.

He said he did not believe a Northern Ireland-wide lockdown was currently required.

Prof Young said he recognised the economic benefit of people returning to work but his advice was to continue to work from home where possible.

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It has now been more than six weeks since the last Stormont briefing on coronavirus,

Prof Young said that the return of regular briefings is being discussed.

“It’s important we have clear and transparent communications and high-profile briefings where possible,” he added.

Full story here.

Image source, NI Assembly

Northern Ireland’s chief scientific adviser has said the 288 confirmed cases of coronavirus in the past week is a “considerable concern”.

Speaking on BBC’s Good Morning Ulster programme, Prof Ian Young said “it represents a ten-fold increase, or more, of the virus compared to what we were seeing around the end of June”.

He said that while there are significantly higher numbers of cases in Antrim and Newtownabbey and Mid and East Antrim council areas, there is indication of widespread community transmission across Northern Ireland.

“We’re undoubtedly seeing Covid fatigue and that leads into complacency,” said Prof Young.

“I can understand it to an extent but we have to keep working hard consistently with the basic guidelines and make them embedded in people’s lives.”

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Julie Hart, whose son, Benjamin, will getting his GCSE results on Thursday, said he "punched the air" in happiness when he heard the news.

GCSE results in NI will be solely based on grades provided by teachers.

But Ms Hart said it was a bit bittersweet moment in their household following her daughter Charlotte's disappointment in her A-level results on Thursday when more than a third of estimated grades allocated by teachers were lowered.

"It has been a complete emotional rollercoaster with Charlotte and I wouldn’t want any other family having to go through that," she told BBC Radio Ulster's Good Morning Ulster programme.

"But regarding GCSEs I am one very happy parent for the moment, with one very happy son."

Benjamin said he had lost sleep due to the fear of being downgraded so he was ecstatic with the "U-turn".

"I was so worried since my sister got her results. It was a huge shock. I got really worried I wasn’t going to do as well as I hoped," he said.