Northern Ireland A-Level Changes: A Solution Nobody Asked For
Northern Ireland has announced changes to GCSEs and A-Levels.
Fewer exams. Less coursework. More weight on final exams.
The minister, Paul Givan, said students here take “far more exams than their peers in England” and that these reforms will “place learning, not testing, at the heart of education”.
Fair.
But there’s a gap between how this sounds… and how students actually behave.
AS Levels are being sidelined
The biggest shift is around AS Levels.
Up to now, they counted for 40% of the final A-Level grade and gave students a proper read on where they stood halfway through.
Any students I speak to enjoy this system. It gives them a read of where they are at halfway through their A-levels. Helps them to lock in, to go all Gen Z for a minute.
Now, AS Levels aren’t technically gone, but they’ve been stripped back. At most, they’ll account for about 30%, and even that is optional.
Backwards move, á mon avis.
Out of touch with how students work
There’s an assumption underneath all of this that students will pace themselves over two years.
If you believe that, you haven’t been in a classroom.
Students work when something is coming. They need deadlines. They need a reason to sit down and focus.
AS Levels created that moment in Year 13. A line in the sand.
Watch now what will happen with a more pressurised A-level exam at the end of 2-years.
63% said no
What’s slightly uncomfortable in all of this is that the original proposals were ignored.
There was little support for fully linear A-Levels in the consultation. The idea of pushing everything to the end was clearly unpopular. 63% of respondents were against it.
Even politically, there’s been pushback. One MLA said the plans were “overwhelmingly rejected by the public”.
And yet, here we are.
The AI point is a cop-out
AI gets mentioned as a reason for reducing coursework.
And look, it’s a real issue. No one is denying that.
If AI is changing how students work, then assessment should adapt. Instead, we’ve leaned harder into final exams.
It’s simpler. Easier to control.
But it’s also a step backwards longer term.
Meanwhile, the Republic goes the other way
In the Republic of Ireland, we’re moving in the opposite direction.
More continuous assessment. More ways for students to pick up marks over time. Even Leaving Cert Maths is moving towards a 40% project component.
That spreads the pressure.
Northern Ireland is concentrating it.
This doesn’t feel thought through
When students push back and still get ignored, it’s not a great start.
Northern Ireland has consistently performed strongly at A-Level. The system wasn’t broken.
This feels like a solution looking for a problem.
And I’d be surprised if we’re not revisiting this in a few years..
