CCEA: NI exams body chief Justin Edwards to leave post

Last year CCEA chief executive Justin Edwards apologised for the handling of exams

The chief executive of the Northern Ireland exams board CCEA, Justin Edwards, is to leave the organisation.

Mr Edwards said he was leaving the exams board after six years "to pursue a new opportunity".

In 2020, he apologised to pupils and teachers for how A-level, AS and GCSE grades were awarded.

CCEA was widely criticised for the way A-levels were graded after exams were cancelled, causing a U-turn from Education Minister Peter Weir.

The minister decided that grades calculated by schools should be used to give pupils results after many had been lowered during standardisation by CCEA.

As summer exams have been cancelled for a second year, schools in Northern Ireland will calculate GCSE, AS and A-level grades to be awarded to their pupils in 2021.

But CCEA will be heavily involved in the results process.

For example, CCEA will review how schools award grades to "ensure fairness and consistency", but there will not be a return to the kind of statistical process used by the exams board which proved controversial in 2020.

Mr Edwards is leaving his post on 30 April.

Whoever succeeds him will have to oversee the awarding of results in the summer.

'Significant change'

In a statement CCEA said Mr Edwards remains "fully committed to the implementation of the minister's decisions in relation to awarding examinations and CCEA's wider programme of work".

The interim chairperson of CCEA, Carol Fitzsimons, said Mr Edwards had "transformed" the work of the organisation since taking the chief executive's role in 2014.

"He has delivered significant change to many aspects of the work of CCEA and has led the organisation positively through challenging and unprecedented circumstances," she said.

"We are indebted to him for his diligence, hard work and commitment to education over these years and wish him every success for his future."