Committee chair Chris Lyttle has the opening question. He asks the minister if he would like to apologise to students who have been upset by their downgraded results.

"I understand the disappointment people have," the minister says.

Mr Weir says it's important to understand that "no-one has been downgraded" and that there has been "a difference between where teachers have assessed what they feel the pupils should be getting and what the actual results are".

He says that has been the same for a number of years.

The minister says that clearly within the modelling there will be instances where it has not produced the right result.

"That is why we need an open, robust appeals service" to look at those cases on an individual level, Mr Weir says.

Image source, NI Assembly

Chris Lyttle reminds the minister of concerns voiced by committee members as far back as 3 June regarding the statistical model to be used in awarding grades.

He says members have been inundated by principals and pupils who are "shocked, confused and distressed".

Mr Lyttle puts it to the minister that he and CCEA have failed to explain in a clear and transparent manner the way in which the model has operated and that the model has failed many pupils.

He calls on Mr Weir to act to ensure pupils receive "whatever grade is highest of their AS-level grade, their teacher-assessed grade or their CCEA-awarded grade"

The minister accepts that "if, in the public sphere, the information is not clear enough and hasn't been clear enough and in part because of the complexities of that information" then "maybe we could have done more in terms of explaining".

He says that previous experience shows that "teachers will tend to look more optimistically in terms of the grade results than what actually happens in practice".

Mr Weir says a robust appeals process is the correct way to deal with any problem as it "actually tailors it to the individual".

Replying to Mr Lyttle's suggestion on how to award grades, the minister says that if grades were given on the basis of teacher assessment "we would move up in a situation on the A-levels where the level of change of the pass rate from A* to C would move up from 84.8% to 95.1%"

Mr Lyttle says he believes the minister is "increasingly isolated" in his view.

Peter Weir begins but congratulating young people on their results.

He says that while there “will be focus in on various issues arising out of” the results given, “there has been an increase in those achieving grades at A* to C across all schools types”.

He says this reflects an “upward trend” and says that there has been an increase in 1.6% in A Level figures, while at AS level there has been a 2.2% increase in grades.

“Those entries that have received a U grade this year at A level has gone down to 0.9%," says the minister.

He adds that equates to roughly 200 papers out of 26,000 that have been graded as being a U, compared to last year when the percentage of U grades was 1.7%.

The education minister adds that “I am confident that the vast majority of our A Level students now have outcomes that will now allow them to progress with their plans for the future” but accepts there have been some concerns raised with the system.

“Everyone engaged in this process was focused on doing the best for our young people in what are extraordinary terms,” says Mr Weir, adding that there was a need to ensure grades were fair this year, last year and that they also can stand up to scrutiny in future years.

Image source, NI Assembly

Mr Weir says there was a requirement for a standardisation process and adds that CCEA was in contact with counterparts in other parts of the UK.

Head teachers, teaching unions, students, managing authorities, and the education and training inspectorate were all consulted in the development of the final grade calculation process says the minister.

“Everyone recognised there was no perfect solution,” says Mr Weir.

In the absence of actually sitting exams, Mr Weir said there was a desire to create a “least worst solution” and says “no one suggested a different workable process for delivering fair and robust grades in the space, or time, that was available”.

He adds that CCEA “did what was asked of them” and says he believes “the outcomes, overall, are valid” but accepts that no everyone feels that way.

“The appeals process will allow schools and young people to explore every avenue that needs to be explored to understand the outcome they have been awarded,” says the minister.

Mr Weir says the appeals process will also take into account “what evidence can be submitted”, something that he says differs from previous years.

The chair of the Education Committee, Chris Lyttle (below), opens the meeting to the public.

He runs through some generic business before bringing members to order.

Image source, NI Assembly

The committee then turns to the first witness session of the day with Minister Peter Weir.

Committee chair Chris Lyttle asks the minister to focus his remarks on Thursday's A-Level results, after more than a third of estimated grades allocated by teachers were downgraded.

Mr Lyttle asks if the minister would come back at a later date to discuss his plans for school restarts.

He then invites the minister to make some opening remarks.

Welcome to Friday's live coverage of the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Education Minister Peter Weir and the head of the exams body CCEA, Justin Edwards, are appearing before the Education Committee.

It follows concerns about the methods used to calculate this year's A-level results.

Mr Weir will also be briefing MLAs on plans for pupils to return to school.

It should be an interesting session.

The committee meets at 09:30. Do stay with us.