Students sit first series of Covid A-level and GCSE exams

Reserve exams were introduced for pupils who missed an initial paper due to illness or self-isolation

More than 200 students sat the first reserve series of summer A-level and GCSE exams held in Northern Ireland.

That is according to figures provided to BBC News NI by the Council for the Curriculum Examinations and Assessment (CCEA).

The reserve exams were introduced for pupils who missed an initial exam paper due to illness or self-isolation.

They took place from Monday 20 June until Tuesday 5 July, after the end of the normal series of exams.

The bulk of the reserve exams were held in A-level subjects, to enable students sitting them to get their qualification this year.

In the years before the pandemic, students who missed exams may have had to wait until the following school year before resitting.

But the figures released by CCEA showed that relatively few students opted to sit the reserve exams in 2022.

No students sat almost a third of the scheduled reserve A-level exams, as 15 out of the 48 held had no entries.

There were also 15 reserve GCSE exams scheduled in 5 subjects - history, religious studies, government and politics, economics, and statistics.

That was because pupils taking those subjects were likely to sit only one exam so if they missed it they might not get a grade.

However, no students were entered for seven of the 15 reserve GCSE exams.

Relatively few students opted to sit the reserve exams in 2022, figures released by CCEA show

In all, 217 pupils sat reserve exams in either GCSEs or A-levels, according to CCEA.

However pupils who missed an exam paper also had the option of having their overall mark decided based on the papers they were able to sit.

CCEA previously said that pupils who sat reserve exams may face a slight delay in getting their results but they would receive them as close as possible to the scheduled results days.

Those are 18 August for AS and A-levels and 25 August for GCSEs.

According to separate statistics from the Department of Education, there were about 29,400 pupils in sixth forms in schools in Northern Ireland in 2021-22.

However, although some pupils take an A-level in year 13, the vast majority of pupils who sit A-level exams are in year 14.

Formal GCSE, AS and A-level summer exams were cancelled in 2020 and 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic and pupils were given grades calculated by their schools instead.

Summer exams resumed in 2022, but the reserve series was among a raft of changes introduced to take account of disruption to education caused by the pandemic and restrictions.

Education Minister Michelle McIlveen has already said that pupils taking GCSE, AS and A-Level exams in 2023 will know in advance the topics on which they will be questioned.