2021 news

CCEA has now published the guidance and process for schools and colleges on how the alternative awarding arrangements for Summer 2021 CCEA’s Occupational Studies, Vocational Qualifications and Entry Level Qualifications will operate following the cancellation of this year’s exams by the Minister of Education, Peter Weir MLA.

Most students in Northern Ireland take GCSE and AS/A Level qualifications with CCEA. Guidance for CCEA qualifications was published on 5 March 2021. However, there are students who also take qualifications with AQA, WJEC/Eduqas, OCR and Pearson. These qualifications will follow JCQ published guidance which was released on 26 March 2021.

Today, CCEA has released 25 GCSE subject specific guidance materials as part of the support provision for the Summer 2021 alternative awarding arrangements.

As of today, all 30 GCE teacher support guidance documents for Summer 2021 alternative awarding arrangements are now available to view online. This follows the release of CCEA’s Summer 2021: Alternative Arrangements – Process for Heads of Centre earlier this month.

CCEA have now published Information Regarding Private Candidates and Summer 2021 Alternative Awarding Arrangements – setting out the process for schools and colleges when awarding a Centre Determined Grade for private candidates.

The Minister of Education has announced today that Mr Tommy O’Reilly has been appointed the new Chairperson for CCEA Council, following a successful public appointments process.

CCEA has today issued a revised version of its Summer 2021 Alternative Arrangements guidance to schools and colleges.

CCEA has today published the guidance and process for schools and colleges on how the alternative awarding arrangements for Summer 2021 CCEA qualifications will operate following the cancellation of this year’s exams by the Minister of Education, Peter Weir MLA.

Ofqual has announced its direction for awarding organisations offering vocational qualifications. This is important for NI learners taking vocational qualifications with English awarding organisations, as the direction will also apply to Northern Ireland. It is important that there is alignment with the arrangements for awarding vocational qualifications as this protects comparability and portability of qualifications taken by learners in Northern Ireland.

Young Enterprise recently launched a free Financial Capability textbook for Key Stage 4 (post-primary Years 11 and 12) students, which is now available for download.

After 6 years in post, CEO Justin Edwards, announces he will be leaving CCEA to pursue a new opportunity. Mr Edwards will remain in post until 30 April 2021. Alongside his established senior management team, he is fully committed to the implementation of the Minister’s decisions in relation to awarding examinations and CCEA’s wider programme of work.

The Education Minister has set out today how the alternative awarding arrangements for summer 2021 CCEA qualifications will operate.

Engaging with young learners as they study from home has been the focus of CCEA’s January issue of the Primary eNewsletter. Featuring latest news, guidance and resources that support home and /or blended learning, this eNewsletter is full of useful and relevant materials to support Primary teachers as they work within the NI Curriculum.

On 22 January 2021, the Economy Minister announced the cancellation of Essential Skills assessments and examinations for vocational qualifications used for progression until August 2021.

The Department of Education has today published an independent report on the review of the alternative awarding of CCEA’s 2020 summer GCSE, AS and A level examinations. The review, which was carried out by Deloitte over a six-week period in the autumn, analysed CCEA’s awarding methodology including design, implementation, management and communication of the arrangements.