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Progressive Conservative Leader Blaine Higgs suspects the Liberal government's decision to cancel standardized tests for Grade 4 and Grade 10 students was a political move, despite a recent explanation from officials.

Other participants in the CBC New Brunswick political panel this week suggested the results of tests that did go ahead tell an incomplete story and reflect a school system that needs work.

Last week, the province released the results of last year's testing, but the results for grades 4 and 10 were missing. Government officials later said the tests had been cancelled, mainly because of a staff shortage.

Higgs pointed to the Liberals' pledge to report on the success of their 10-year education plan each year, without exceptions.

"They didn't put an exception in that in an election year, if the results weren't good enough, they wouldn't report on the results," he said.

"And now, we stop reporting, in a election year? It's more than coincidental that anything that has any sort of factual information, that might not spin towards election news, is taken out of the equation."

Blaine Higgs, the Progressive Conservative leader, questioned the province's motive for cancelling some standardized tests, the results of which would have been released during an election year. (Maria Jose Burgos/CBC)

Cabinet Minister Roger Melanson fired back at Higgs for making the test results a political issue, saying their cancellation was due to "nothing more than the fact that it was an HR issue."

"I can't believe believe what I'm hearing from the leader of the Opposition. This is the person who would do things differently, who would get out of the mud throwing and making everything political."

This week, the deputy minister of education took the blame for the cancellation of the assessments, stressing there was no political reason for it.

Asked whether it was typical for a deputy minister to make this kind of decision, without consulting with the minister, Melanson said it was allowed.

"It is exactly what the deputy minister explained," Melanson said, adding he couldn't get into exactly what occurred because it was an human resources issue.

Not the full picture, parties say

Green Party Leader David Coon, left, and People's Alliance Leader Kris Austin in the studio at CBC New Brunswick. (Maria Jose Burgos/CBC )

Earlier, both Green Party Leader David Coon and NDP Leader Jennifer McKenzie said they thought standardized test results didn't capture the full picture of what's going on in classrooms.

"They don't tell me whether children are being taught to think critically, they don't tell me whether children are being taught to think creatively," Coon said. "They don't tell me whether children are being taught to problem solve.

"There are tremendous limitations in terms of the utility of these standardized test scores."

McKenzie said she thought the test scores should be used with caution.

But she added they do seem to show there isn't a clear, well-thought out approach to improving literacy and mathematics in the school system.

"We need a strong, central strategy, a clear vision for teaching children how to read and do math."

Asked what he thinks the latest test results reflect, People's Alliance Leader Kris Austin said they show that "nothing's changed" with respect to the quality of education in the province in decades.

"You've gone through three governments, and yet we still remain status quo in terms of education," he said. "I'm certainly not pleased with the results."

One of the more striking test results was that only about 32 per cent of Grade 6 anglophone students tested at an appropriate level or higher on the scientific literacy assessment. The province, however, said this was still an improvement.