Thousands of students facing IT disruption ahead of exam season

Thousands of GCSE and A-Level students across Northern Ireland face disruption to Easter revision plans due to an IT problem.

The problem has been caused by a password reset implemented by the Education Authority (EA).

An EA spokesperson said: "We recognise this is causing inconvenience to users."

But it means that many pupils will be unable to access revision materials provided by their teachers online.

All online and IT systems in schools in Northern Ireland are provided through the C2K network, managed by the Education Authority (EA).

On Thursday, schools received a message that as part of "work to manage an IT security issue" the EA would be carrying out a password reset for all users.

But that has resulted in all schools and pupils being logged out of their accounts, and it means that pupils cannot log in to get work or resources provided by their teachers.

In a statement, a spokesperson for the EA said: "The EA has been made aware by Capita of an IT security issue affecting its C2K system provided to schools in Northern Ireland.

"Capita are currently investigating the issue and are carrying out a number of tests which will impact access.

"We recognise this is causing inconvenience to users and we are committed to working with Capita to resolve the issues as quickly as possible.

"However, these steps are essential in the context of maintaining the integrity and security of the system."

More than 800 pupils at Methodist College in Belfast (MCB) are due to sit GCSE, AS and A-Level exams a few weeks after the Easter break.

The school principal Jenny Lendrum said that all pupils access work and other information through the C2K system.

"That would include any online platforms that they would use for learning, it would include all of the e-mails that we use in school," she said.

"It also means that they would use OneDrive through C2K, so all of those different services are all linked."

"So whenever the C2K system goes down it means that our pupils do not have access to all of the different services that they can use within school."

She said that although the school recommended that pupils took a break over Easter, many would do some revision and would be affected by the IT problems.

"We would have pupils who are working from Google classroom which would be where they would have all of their resources that are uploaded throughout the year," she said.

"But at this time of the year there would be many pieces of revision that would be there for the pupils to access."

Lendrum said she hoped the EA could sort out the problem as soon as possible.

"Whilst it is the Easter holidays there would be a lot of work being done by pupils independently but also working alongside staff.

"With the C2K network being down that ability to work together and to access really important materials is just not there."

She's worried that pupils will not be able to access what they need in order to maximise their revision time over the school holidays.

"There are only two weeks after Easter before the pupils will start their study leave, the exams will be very quick after that."

"So much is online and that's the way they work," she added.