Pressure is intensifying on Portugal’s Education Minister, Fernando Alexandre, following widespread disruptions in this year’s national school exams, with students and educators voicing significant concerns over the handling of the assessment process.
The controversy centers on the government’s recent decision to fully digitize the exam marking system, a move championed by the centre-right administration as a means to modernize public education and enhance the objectivity and rigor of evaluations. This change affected over 260,000 students across primary and secondary levels. However, the rollout has been marred by a series of operational problems that have undermined confidence in the system.
Since the exam season began in mid-June, numerous schools reported logistical errors, including the misallocation of exam papers and assignment of marking responsibilities to retired teachers and, in at least one instance, the family of a deceased examiner. Additionally, some educators were tasked with grading subjects outside their expertise. Teachers encountered technical difficulties accessing the online marking platform, with reports of missing continuation pages, incomplete and illegible student responses, and answers disappearing during the evaluation process.
An education watchdog later revealed that software glitches and errors in grade boundaries had affected approximately 26,000 exams, leading to the adjustment of more than 18,000 grades. Students expressed frustration at discrepancies between their predicted and final scores, with some missing grades at the time of release, which occurred three days later than originally scheduled in mid-July. Complaints also emerged over exam irregularities, such as missing pages, handwriting inconsistencies, and instances where tests were reportedly switched or lost.
Concerns have also been raised about the treatment of students with special educational needs. Some allege that digital filing errors resulted in the omission of essential tags marking their additional support requirements, potentially impacting the fairness of their assessments.
The unrest sparked protests by both students and teachers demanding accountability, with a petition calling for the annulment of all exam results amassing around 19,000 signatures. Some individuals are reportedly exploring legal avenues against the state over the exam mishaps.
Despite mounting criticism, Prime Minister Luís Montenegro has stood by Minister Alexandre, resisting calls for his dismissal amid what is being described as the most severe crisis to hit Portugal’s education sector in decades. The government maintains that transitioning to a digital system was a necessary step towards improving the transparency and efficiency of school assessments, though the current fallout has raised questions about the implementation and oversight of the process.