The Newfoundland and Labrador Federation of School Councils believes that making public exams mandatory for the 2020-2021 school year will negatively affect academic success.

The federation is endorsing recent calls by four metro-area school councils calling on the provincial government to cancel the exams and opt for school-based assessments. Government plans to have public exams.

Federation President Don Coombs says parents are also worried about the potential interruptions in learning in the coming year.

He says when schools closed in March, the selected curriculum may not have been as complete as it should have been.

Coombs believes that in order to give all students an equal learning experience, the right thing to do is to cancel public exams.

However, in a VOCM Question of the Day last week, 58 per cent of people voted that high school students should have to write public exams.