Covid-19: Stormont to give clarity on restrictions and exams

Ministers are to explain their decision to tighten Covid-19 restrictions in Northern Ireland at a special sitting of the Stormont assembly on Wednesday.

They agreed on Tuesday to give police the power to enforce the stay-at-home order, taking effect from Friday.

The Police Federation said it was concerned about “gaps” in that law.

There is also controversy about school transfer tests after one exam provider cancelled its testing process while another moved its test to next month.

The assembly will sit at 12:00 GMT, with the first and deputy first ministers, the justice minister and the education minister all expected to appear.

On Tuesday ministers agreed more measures to tackle the rise in the number of coronavirus cases in recent weeks.

From Friday people will only be allowed to leave home for medical or food needs, exercise and work that cannot be done from home.

The executive has also decided to reduce the number of people allowed to meet both indoors and outdoors.

Enforcement powers for the Police Service of Northern Ireland are to be reintroduced, meaning officers can order people to go home if they are breaking lockdown rules.

Mark Lindsay, the chair of the Police Federation which represents rank-and-file officers, said he had questions about the executive’s decision to reintroduce those powers.

“There’s a whole pile of gaps that the police are very much left to pick up the pieces on,” he said.

“We don’t think that’s practical of fair.”

It was also agreed that all employers must conduct a risk assessment whenever employees are required to work away from their home.

Junior ministers are to meet church leaders “as soon as possible” to discuss closing places of worship and moving services online.

Remote learning for school pupils is expected to last well into February, with most children not returning to classrooms until after the mid-term break.

Schools will admit vulnerable children and the children of key workers and special schools will stay open.

But there is confusion among many schoolchildren and their parents in relation to exams and school transfer tests.

Some BTec exams are set to go ahead on Wednesday and next week’s GCSE exams will go ahead next week unless the education minister cancels them.

The first transfer tests were due to take place on Saturday but on Tuesday the exam providers said that would not happen.

One provider cancelled its test while another - the Association for Quality Education (AQE) - said it was moving its test to a single sitting in February.

Education Minister Peter Weir said he did not have the power to intervene.

However, Deputy First Minister Michelle O’Neill outlined her opposition to the move by the AQE, saying it was “a private company putting its needs before the needs of the children”.

She said Mr Weir “must act now”.

Londonderry schoolgirl Elidth Wild, 10, was putting in “several hours of work each week” doing practice exams papers in preparation for the transfer test.

She heard on Tuesday afternoon that her first of a series of AQE exams would not be taking place on Saturday as planned.

Within hours she found out the test had been moved to the end of February and would consist of a single exam rather than multiple papers.

“I have been working for like ages now - I started working at the end of P5 and I was ready to do it on Saturday,” Elidth told BBC Radio Foyle.

“I heard the test was cancelled and then just a while ago I heard that it was on and I felt confused.

“I feel like it’s too long that I have been waiting to do this now.”

Elidth’s mum Gemma said the uncertainty about the test was “very stressful” for the family.

“We are a bit disappointed in the communication from the likes of the AQE and the grammar schools.

“We are hearing everything from news outlets or social media.

“We haven’t had any direct correspondence as of yet - nobody has come out and talked directly to the kids sitting [the exam] and they are the most important people.”

Koulla Yiasouma, Northern Ireland’s commissioner for children and young people, said Tuesday was a “truly shameful day for education”.

She criticised the lateness of decision-making on transfer tests and said she was “speechless” when the AQE announced it was rescheduling its test.

“I absolutely understand the devastation that children and their parents and indeed their teachers feel with the announcements yesterday,” she said.

The commissioner argued that because the pandemic is so unpredictable, AQE cannot guarantee that it will be safe enough to hold the postponed exam next month.

Ms Yiasouma objects in principal to academic selection at the ages of 10 and 11 but explained her current criticism was directed at the lack of clarity on transfer tests, GSCEs and BTec exams.

“It’s unconscionable that we are doing this to our children and young people,” she said.