As with last week’s A-Level results, the number of A* and A grades awarded are expected to fall compared to 2022
By Robbie Meredith
BBC News NI education correspondent
Almost 31,000 students in Northern Ireland will receive their GCSE grades and some vocational qualification results on Thursday.
As with last week’s A-level results, the number of A* and A grades awarded are expected to fall compared to 2022.
Most pupils will pick up their results at their school as – unlike A-levels – they cannot receive them online.
GCSE, AS and A-level exams were cancelled in 2020 and 2021 due to Covid-19 pandemic restrictions and pupils were awarded grades calculated by their schools instead.
That had led to rises in the number of top grades awarded.
Since exams returned in the summer of 2022, there have been some changes to take account of disruption faced by students.
Image source, Getty Images
The Northern Ireland exam board, the Council for the Curriculum, Examinations and Assessment (CCEA), has also said examiners will bear in mind disruption faced by candidates when marking.
The exams board has said that they expect to be back to pre-pandemic standards in awarding qualifications in 2024.
The vast majority of GCSEs in Northern Ireland – about 96% – are taken by pupils through CCEA.
The remainder are taken through English and Welsh exam boards, so some pupils in Northern Ireland will receive results in the form of numbers as well as letters.
That is because GCSEs in England are graded numerically from 9 to 1.
Pupils use their GCSE and other results of qualifications like BTECs to progress to A-levels, courses in further education, training or employment.
