The chair of Northern Ireland’s examinations board, the Council for the Curriculum, Examinations and Assessment (CCEA), has resigned.
CCEA said Margaret Farragher “will seize a new opportunity in the UK education sector later this year”.
Ms Farragher has served as interim Chief Executive of the Audit Committee since Justin Edwards left in April 2021.
She had to guide CCEA through the first GCSE, AS and A-level summer exams to be held since 2019.
In a statement to BBC News NI confirming Ms Farragher’s resignation, CCEA did not say if she would leave the organization before the results of the GCSE, AS and Baccalaureate exams are awarded in August.
Exams in 2020 and 2021 have been canceled due to the pandemic and schools are calculating grades to be awarded to students instead.
CCEA was widely criticized in 2020 for the way the Baccalaureate exams were scored after the exams were cancelled, prompting a reversal from then-Education Secretary Peter Weir.
After many scores were downgraded by the Examination Board during standardization, Mr. Weir decided that the grades calculated by the schools would be used.
Ms Farragher was the CCEA’s Director of Education during this period, but took over the helm of the organization following the departure of Mr Edwards.
GCSE, AS, A Level and BTEC exams are currently held in Northern Ireland.
For students who miss their first homework due to illness, there will be a reserve set of Abitur examinations for the first time at the end of June/beginning of July.
Due to the disruption caused by the pandemic, parts of many subjects have been exempted from exams and students will be doing less homework.
However, some schools have previously raised concerns about what the CCEA has decided to remove from some courses.
In a statement to BBC News NI confirming Ms Farragher’s resignation, a spokesman for the CCEA said that its board of directors “will make arrangements to fill the position of chief executive”.
“In the meantime, Margaret remains interim CEO — a role she assumed in April 2021,” they said.
“We wish Margaret every success in the future.”
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