Education: Exams news in Portugal

The National Federation of Education believes that Fernando Alexandre should not be the only one to take responsibility for what went wrong with the national exams.

The Ministry of Education, Science and Innovation has announced an extraordinary national exam session for secondary school students from September 3 to 8. This measure follows technical issues in the electronic grading system, allowing all students eligible for the second phase to retake their exams, with the best grade counting toward their final results. Registration for this special session is open from July 27 to July 31.

The Association of Geography Teachers has requested an urgent review of the automatic grading parameters for item 12.1 in the Geography A national exam. This follows two previously identified errors in the same test, prompting teachers to contact the National Exams Jury and the president of EduQA, Luís Santos, to ensure fair assessment for the 16,714 students who took the exam.

Only Portuguese Literature presented a failing average in the first phase

The second phase of national secondary school exams started today amid ongoing student uncertainty regarding first-phase results caused by digital system errors. Education Minister Fernando Alexandre has ruled out his resignation, maintaining that the government's exam schedule remains in place.

Update: President demands equality in national exams

President António José Seguro met with Prime Minister Luís Montenegro to demand that the government ensure equality for all students following the technical failures. The president of the Institute for Education, Quality and Assessment (Instituto de Educação, Qualidade e Avaliação or EduQa), Luís Pereira dos Santos, insisted that the digital system was tested multiple times before the exams began.

The National Exams Jury (Júri Nacional de Exames or JNE) has extended the registration deadline for the second phase of the Geography A national exam until the end of Tuesday. The extension follows a parameterization error in the marking scheme for two items, which required the reclassification of student grades. Schools are currently receiving the corrected results.

With the uncertainty resulting from delays in posting 12th-grade exam grades, students are calculating the deadlines for the second phase of exams and higher education applications. These are the key dates.

The National Examination Jury (Júri Nacional de Exames) confirmed that 9th-grade exam results will not be posted this Friday as originally scheduled due to grading delays. While the Minister of Education stated all exams are graded, the government has refused to set a specific time for their release, leaving schools and students in uncertainty. Opposition figures have criticized the handling of the process, with some calling for the Minister of Education to step down.

Update: National exam grades released amid ongoing delays and errors

Secondary school exam grades finally reached schools late Friday evening, though many students remain in limbo with “suspended” classifications due to missing exam components. Minister of Education Fernando Alexandre requested an additional effort from school principals to post results, while President of the Republic António José Seguro acknowledged the process did not go well and called for an audit to prevent future failures.

Minister of Education, Science and Innovation Fernando Alexandre has admitted that the new electronic grading system for national exams faced significant technical obstacles. While he guarantees that all papers will be graded by July 17, he acknowledged that 20% of responses remain unprocessed and promised that the state will compensate families who can prove financial losses due to the delays.