Some Manitoba parents are demanding the provincial government make public the results from its provincewide school tests, saying it could help them choose or analyze their children's schools.

The standardized tests help the province develop curriculum and assess how its students are doing across the system. Students in grades 3, 7, 8 and 12 write various assessments in Manitoba.

The NDP government stopped publicly releasing school-by-school test results in 1999, making Manitoba the only province in Canada that keeps that information secret. A limited number of staff members in the Education Department have access to the scores.

CBC News recently tried to see test scores using a request under the Freedom of Information Act, but was refused.

Winnipeg mother Shannon MacFarlane, whose daughter Lexi has written several provincewide tests, said she would like to know how Lexi compares to the school average, other students within her school board and even students across the province.

"Parents who want a little more in-depth analysis of where their kids are going every day should have that right to that information," MacFarlane said.

But that's exactly what Education Minister Peter Bjornson said he wants to avoid — people ranking schools based on the test results.

"We don't believe that creating a competitive environment necessarily serves the best needs of the students," Bjornson said, adding that students already face competition at school.

"There is competition within the school environment. And that's understandable; people are by nature competitive. That's fine, but to hold one school up as a model against another, I don't think is beneficial in any way to our students or to their teachers."

There are many reasons why a school may score lower than another, Bjornson said, such as high numbers of new Canadians, transient school populations and the level of parental involvement.

MacFarlane said she understands those nuances but still wants the province to make the information available.

"I think that it would be incumbent upon the school to say: 'Look, here are the results. Let us bring the parents in and explain what this means,'" she said.

The Manitoba Teachers' Society, which represents the province's 14,000 public school teachers, said they agree with the minister.

"The whole purpose of ranking is to create winners and losers, and half of all schools will be below average," said president Brian Ardern.

"And when you say that to them, what impact does that have on the school, the teachers, the kids and on that community?"

Ardern said that anyone who wants to rank schools can already do so by looking at demographics, adding schools in the wealthiest neighbourhoods tend to score higher than those in poorer areas.