Steve Aiken, the UUP leader, says he does not wish to join in an “attack” on the education minister, but adds that it’s important to “get to the bottom of what happened”.

“Despite the fact we're not in normal times, we have known all along that GCSE, AS and A-level results were going to come out,” he says.

Image source, NI Assembly

“This didn’t just happen over one or two days, this happened over a period of time,” says Mr Aiken in relation to how exam results were allocated prior to last Thursday.

Mr Aiken says there are “substantial questions of leadership here that must be answered”.

The SDLP's Matthew O'Toole congratulates the minister on "having the maturity" to make the decision he did.

He expresses concern that the decision did not come until a similar position was adopted in England.

"This wasn't just about being treated the same as English, Welsh and Scottish students, it was about addressing a very profound sense of injustice felt by individual students being downgraded, not based on work they had done but, based on an algorithm they had never seen ," the South Belfast MLA says.

Image source, NI Assembly

Mr O'Toole says "a sense of random injustice" has been felt by many people due to the influence the Covid pandemic has had in all of our lives.

He calls for the reissuing of results to happen as quickly as possible.

Roy Beggs of the UUP says he supports the motion as amended.

“Awaiting an A-level result is a stressful time at the best of times, but even more so when you haven’t sat an exam, and even more so when there was the uncertainty of an algorithm that was going to be governing results,” says Mr Beggs.

“There’s clear evidence there were obvious flaws that should have been spotted and picked out,” he says, adding “why did students have to go through the trauma when there was obviously flaws in the system?”

“That was a fault that was at the core of what was happening,” says the UUP MLA.

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The East Antrim MLA questions when students will get their final results.

He also asks what will happen to those students who have not been able to secure their university place due to the confusion over the grades they were awarded.

“We must learn and ensure that this does not happen again, I hope the minister is already putting in processes to ensure students will have examinations next year and will not be relying on such a flawed system,” says Mr Beggs

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The SDLP's Patsy McGlone thanks the minister for his change of direction and says he had been contacted by schools who were faced with "an absolute avalanche of appeals".

He says that if there had been a number of applications for judicial review "that would have left us maybe at Christmas-time still sitting and nothing resolved".

He says the principals he has spoken to have been "trying to manage this emotional and, indeed, professional roller coaster".

Mr McGlone also raises the question of the differentiation between grammar and non-selective schools.

Alliance’s Kellie Armstrong is up next.

She declares a personal interest as a “mummy who had an AS student receiving grades last week”.

Ms Armstrong says students showed how “with a single voice, they had strength”.

Talking as a parent she says “the job's not done yet” and calls for clarification on a number of questions, including the timeframe for the publication of final results.

Image source, NI Assembly

“We need to hear from the minister for the economy what is happening with the money for university places,” she says.

The Strangford MLA calls for mental health support to be offered to students, especially those who may not be returning to school.

Former Sinn Féin education minister John O'Dowd says he's not there to bash the minister "because I have been there, done that, worn the t-shirt and I've a full head of grey as a result of it".

However, he says it's the role of the Assembly and the committees is to hold ministers to account.

Mr O'Dowd criticises the role of English and Welsh exam boards that operate in Northern Ireland without any control from the Stormont Department of Education.

He says he favours a single exams body accountable to the department, the assembly and the Education Committee.

Image source, NI Assembly

Mr O'Dowd says most people accepted the mechanism put in place by the minister and CCEA, as it was seen as a replacement "for no exam" but once the system was seen to have failed "you then have to move to an alternative".

"This could have been resolved on Friday," he says, adding that the Education Committee worked together on Friday to come up with a solution.

Mr O'Dowd says the minister and those around him did not see there was a problem "until late Sunday night".

He than goes on to make some points about safety in relation to the re-opening of schools.

Ulster Unionist Rosemary Barton says it is “now paramount that we move forward to try and mitigate against any fallout there has been from the issuing of the so-called results using an unseen algorithm”.

She adds it was an “unseen algorithm that obviously had not be trialled”.

“Last Thursday brought about nothing, only disappointment.”

Image source, NI Assembly

“No consideration had been given to the long and tedious task that teachers had in putting together evidence to support their predicted grades of each pupil,” she says.

Welcoming the U-turn, Ms Barton says support must be given to those who have “suffered” through “this fiasco”.

Image source, NI Assembly

Sinead McLaughlin of the SDLP is next to speak.

“There is no doubt we have done our young people a great disservice,” she says, adding “we must learn from our mistakes”.

“The first minister of Scotland set the precedent but we didn’t follow,” says the MLA.

She turns to the cap on university places in Northern Ireland and describes it as a “noose around our neck”.

Ms McLaughlin says more needs to be done for those who do not attend university and are seeking to undertake apprenticeships.

Caoimhe Archibald of Sinn Féin says there had been a precedent set the week before in Scotland regarding the awarding of grades.

She says that instead of "being proactive" and learning from the mistakes made elsewhere "the minister stuck by the position that seems to have been much more about protecting the system".

Ms Archibald says "instead, we have had almost a week of additional stress and anxiety for young people, their families, their teachers".

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She says this will be further compounded by continued uncertainty over university admissions.

Education Minister Peter Weir intervenes and says that the universities admissions body, UCAS, had convened all the awarding bodies to ensure that all information is sent to UCAS for forwarding to the universities.

Ms Archibald asks for clarification about courses such as medicine, dentistry and nursing that have a cap on places.

Christopher Stalford of the DUP begins by expressing a personal interest as his niece received results last week.

“Nobody could have foreseen the circumstances that are confronting us today,” says the South Belfast MLA.

He says that Covid has “impacted on almost every aspect of every person’s life in this country" and says those due to sit "GCSE and AS and A-level examinations have been hit particularly hard”.

Mr Stalford refers to the “difficult position facing students in fourth form or lower sixth” and the “significant challenges brought about by a loss of so much classroom learning time”.

Image source, NI Assembly

“People should always remember we are living in unprecedented times,” he adds.

“The model that was in place had significant drawbacks as does this one, grade inflation being the most obvious one.

“I welcome the announcement made by the economy minister in relation to the securing of additional university places,” Mr Stalford adds, and calls for all members to “get behind her” to ensure funding for these places.

Sinn Féin's Catherine Kelly says "the DUP and the British Tory government were prepared to wantonly discard" the future of young people coming of age during the pandemic.

She says "the DUP need to open their eyes and start representing the people who vote for them".

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Ms Kelly asks why children in the north of Ireland are "held ransom by decisions taken in England".

She says that the system offered "postcode discrimination" with pupils in "large schools in disadvantaged areas most harshly treated".

The DUP’s Robin Newton begins by paying tribute to the pupils and teachers of Northern Ireland and says “our education system is second to none however you measure it across the world”.

“It provide opportunities for progress,” says the East Belfast MLA adding it “supports those who need support and that’s been the characteristic of what the minister has tried to do during his tenure in office”.

Mr Newton, who sits on the Education Committee, refers to a meeting of the committee last week which the minister attended.

Mr Newton says by attending, the “minister was subjecting himself to a grilling” which he says was to be commended.

He adds that Peter Weir’s “willingness, his giving of himself to attend the committees - he has been unstinting in that”.

Image source, NI Assembly

The East Belfast MLA continues that Mr Weir has “recognised many children don’t get the opportunities that they desire” and that “there are many young people that do well, and he (Mr Weir) wants to support them to do better”.

“All he did was take action to make sure the Northern Ireland students are not disadvantaged within the UK,” says Mr Newton.

“We want the very best best examination results, we want students to be tested against the best, we know that Northern Ireland students do extremely well and they've done extremely well this year, they did extremely well in the past and I have no doubt they will do extremely in the future,” he adds.

Chris Lyttle of Alliance, who chairs the Education Committee, is next on his feet.

He welcomes the minister's decision to change the system for the awarding of results.

"I'm delighted for the the pupils, parents and teachers who have worked for this outcome," Mr Lyttle adds.

He says there are concerns that the minister could oversee an approach that could produce "such seriously flawed results for so many".

Mr Lyttle says that in one school department the percentage of pupils receiving A - C grades dropped from 90% to 60%.

He says a pattern is emerging of "a minister consistently following a Conservative government rather than leading for the people of Northern Ireland".

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Education Minister Peter Weir asks for an opportunity to reply to this criticism.

"We have now reached a point where everyone throughout the United Kingdom"... "is on exactly the same position".

Mr Lyttle says there is also a concern about the minister ignoring the advice of the Education Committee and the education profession.

He outlines how the committee communicated its concerns around the system with the exams board, CCEA.

Robbie Butler of the UUP is up next.

He says MLAs across parties have been “inundated” with communication from pupils, parents and teachers over the last number of days.

The Lagan Valley MLA says the minister’s announcement on Monday “is one that everybody here should be rightly grateful for”.

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He says it will be a “great comfort to students, families” and pays tribute to the work that he and his colleagues on the Education Committee have done on this issue.

Mr Butler then discusses the mental health impact on young people.

Sinn Féin’s Karen Mullan says “this time of year is usually difficult enough for many, but the way in which this debacle has played out in the context of truly exceptional circumstances has compounded the distress and upset of these young people”.

She says “students were failed” adding that she has been contacted by many students, parents, principals and teachers who expressed “understandable and warranted shock and disappointment”.

Ms Mullan says she found it “impossible” to comprehend that teachers who work with young people and are “best placed to understand their strengths and weaknesses and potential and overall ability, would have their professional judgement disregarded to allow an untried and untested computer algorithm to cast the final assertion on their results of AS and A-levels”.

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“If we trusted teachers more this process would level out and we will see the true ability of our young people which is not always reflected in the pressurised testing,” says the Sinn Féin MLA.

Ms Mullan says she could accept the argument around anomalies “if this was an isolated incident” but she says downgrading happened at schools “right across the north”.

“Our students deserved far better,” she says, and adds that she welcomes the minister’s announcement on Monday.

“Everyone else was way ahead on this issue,” says Ms Mullan.

"We are in unprecedented times," the DUP's Maurice Bradley says.

"In an ideal world young people would have been able to sit their examinations as normal, however we are not in an ideal world," he says.

"I congratulate the minister and his staff for their efforts over the past few days," Mr Bradley.

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"It was a case of 'you can't do right for doing wrong' and I am pleased the minister has listened to the concerns outlined by students and teachers throughout Northern Ireland," he adds.

The DUP MLA says he believes the minister's decision to revert to the teachers' predicted grades in awarding A-levels "is the correct one".

Finally, he calls on the minister and his officials to engage in dialogue with the universities to ensure that sufficient places are available.

The SDLP’s Daniel McCrossan opens the debate by paying his respects to his party’s former leader, John Hume.

Mr Hume died earlier this month at the age of 83.

Turning to the motion at hand, the West Tyrone MLA says “what happened this week to our young people,” he says, “in particular the 11,000 students and young people who have had their grades downgraded was unforgivable,” he says.

“The system failed them incredibly.”

Mr McCrossan continues: “I will acknowledge very strongly and welcome the minister’s move in recent days on GCSE, first of all in the first half of the day, and in the second half of the day to AS and A-level”.

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“Are we here as representatives for the people of the north of Ireland, or Northern Ireland or whatever you want to call it, or are we here to take out lead from London?” says the SDLP MLA.

“Are we here to put first, the best interests of our young people, our teachers, or are we to follow the London, the British government in relation to their agendas?

“We’re in a better position today than we were yesterday, but there’s still huge damage been caused,” adds Mr McCrossan.

The minister and the head of CCEA were “determined to see this system out, to die in a ditch for a model that was untried and untested,” Mr McCrossan says.

“Why is there a huge cloak of secrecy surrounding the processes of CCEA?” he adds, calling for the algorithm used to calculate results to be published.

Speaker Alex Maskey is making his first appearance in the assembly for a number of months. He has been shielding during the Covid pandemic.

Mr Maskey notes that this is the first time the house has met since the death of the former SDLP leader, John Hume.

He says arrangements are being made to allow the assembly to pay an appropriate tribute to Mr Hume at a later date.

The motion to be debated at today's special meeting of the assembly was brought on a cross-party basis and is in response to the controversy over A-level results.

Mr Maskey acknowledges that the circumstances have changed somewhat since the education minister's announcement yesterday.

He says he's disappointed at the number of amendments he received at short notice, which all effectively make the same points.

Image source, NI Assembly

The motion is as follows:

That this assembly is deeply concerned that the modelling used to calculate grades for AS and A-levels has awarded incorrect results for students across Northern Ireland; and calls on the minister of education to award students the highest of their AS, teacher-predicted or CCEA grades for A levels, AS levels and GCSEs due to exceptional Covid-19 circumstances.

Mr Daniel McCrossanMr Chris LyttleMr Robbie ButlerMs Karen Mullan

The SDLP amendment chosen for debate is as follows:

Leave out all after‘Northern Ireland’and insert:

"; welcomes the Minister of Education’s decision to reverse the unfair model used for awarding grades to ensure students now receive the higher of their teacher-predicted or CCEA grades for A levels, AS levels and GCSEs due to exceptional Covid-19 circumstances; recognises the immense stress, anxiety and disruption this has caused many students; further recognises the resultant implications for local colleges and universities; and calls on the Minister to work urgently with Executive colleagues to provide clarity and guidance to students and educational institutions.”

Mr Daniel McCrossan

Mr Justin McNulty

Hello and welcome to live coverage of the Northern Ireland Assembly.

The assembly has been recalled following controversy over AS and A level results.

On Monday, the Education Minister announced a u-turn on how grades would be awarded after more than a third of students had previously had their results downgraded.

The session will being at 12:00.

Image source, Getty Images

We'll also be joining the Education Committee at 15:30 where the minister is due to outline his department's plans to restart schools in light of the Covid-19 pandemic.