Weir under fire from all sides at Stormont after A-levels furore
SINN Fein has accused DUP Education Minister Peter Weir of “blotting his copy book” over A-level grades and has warned him he must show decisive leadership as schools reopen next week.
During an emergency debate at Stormont yesterday the SDLP accused Mr Weir of blindly following London on the issue rather than putting the needs of local students first.
Sinn Fein MLA John O’dowd refused to “bash” Mr Weir, because as a former Education Minister himself he had “been there, done that, worn the T-shirt and have a full head of grey hair as a result”.
He said the job was even more difficult in light of Covid-19.
“I am not here to criticise, but I am here to challenge,” he said.
Mr O’dowd said that Mr Weir had not moved quickly enough when it became apparent there were flaws in the grading system.
“Our minister’s copybook is blotted. His leadership has been questioned,” Mr O’dowd said. “In the days and weeks ahead we need to see decisive leadership because our schools now face the bigger challenge of reopening. As a parent and as an elected representative, I want to ensure we have a minister leading from the front, a minister giving confidence.”
SDLP MLA Daniel Mccrossan described the downgrading of 11,000 grades from teachers’ estimates as “unforgivable” and he said the system had totally failed students.
Welcoming Mr Weir’s U-turn, he said: “I am glad that you have moved, but I regret that it took Boris Johnson or London to move first. Are we here as public representatives of the people of the north of Ireland... are we here to represent them, or are we to take our lead from London?
“Are we here to put first the best interests of our young people and teachers, or are we to follow the British Government and their agenda?”
Alliance MLA Chris Lyttle expressed concern that Mr Weir had overseen “an approach that produced such seriously flawed results for so many”.
He said: “In one school department, further to the CCEA calculated grades, the percentage of pupils attaining A*-C grades reduced from 90% to 60%, 20 of 126 pupils did not gain a university place. It is also seriously concerning that a pattern is emerging of a minister consistently following a Conservative Government rather than leading for the people of Northern Ireland.”
UUP MLA Robbie Butler said that, like many of his colleagues, he had been inundated with emails, texts and phone calls from worried students and their parents “at all hours of the day and night”.
He spoke of a female student in his Lagan Valley constituency.
“She was predicted four straight As in her A-levels. She was an A-grade pupil; a high-achieving pupil. Instead, she got one A, two Bs and one C,” he said. “We know that that will be fixed.
“The potential loss to her was a place at Queen’s to study law. I believe that we can and should catch the tail of that, but there were some lost days.”
People Before Profit MLA Gerry Carroll called on Mr Weir to resign and said there was no reason to thank him for reversing his decision.
“A ‘well done’ is in order for forcing the U-turn, but not for the minister. I say ‘well done’ to the pupils who gathered in protest, not just here but across the water,” he added.
Mr Weir told MLAS that his department had set out to provide a system that was “fair and credible” but that any system replacing exams was always destined to “have problems with fairness”.
He pointed out that the A-level results last Thursday saw a rise of 1.6% in the number of A* to C grades, as well as a fall in the numbers awarded a U grade from 1.7% to 0.9%.
In response to criticism that he had followed London, he said there was an “inextricable link” between Northern Ireland and Britain.
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