The Opposition Education critic is calling the elimination of public exams this year the right decision, but it should have come earlier.

Craig Pardy was responding to yesterday’s announcement by Education Minister Tom Osborne.

The minister announced that public exams will be cancelled this June, but won’t say if the province will be cancelling public exams altogether, as was the case for a period back in the 1990s.

Osborne calls it a complex issue. He says public exams are not just about ensuring that students have the basic knowledge necessary for moving on to the next level, but standardized testing ensures that students across the province get the same standard of learning.

He says a student in St. John’s, St. Lawrence, St. Anthony or Goose Bay should all have a similar level of education and perform similarly on a standardized test.

The Opposition’s Craig Pardy doesn’t understand why it took so long for government to announce the cancellation of public exams for this year