The Government of Newfoundland and Labrador is holding firm that there will be public exams for high school students at the end of the next school year, even though a collective of school councils believes that will put many students at a disadvantage.
School councils at four schools in St. John’s, Mount Pearl and CBS are calling on the provincial government not to go ahead with public exams next year, and instead opt for school-based assessments.
Jennifer Dooley, chair of the Holy Spirit Council, says those schools go by what is called a semesterized approach – meaning the year is split into two semesters that run from September to January, and February to June respectively.
She says when schools closed in March, semesterized students were only a few weeks into that semester’s classes. According to Dooley, that leaves them at a big disadvantage.
Non semesterized students completed about 75 per cent of the course load by March, while those in a semesterized stream only finished about 20 per cent of term two courses.
Meanwhile, government says that through all levels of the plan teachers are responsible for assessing the progress of students, and public exams are an extension of that and serve to certify a student’s knowledge.
The province is confident in the ability of teachers to work within the parameters given to prepare students for public exams.