The Council of Ministers approved this Thursday the already announced changes to the conditions for secondary education, which will gradually come into force from the next academic year.
“A decree-law has been approved that changes the guidelines for the assessment of learning in the curriculum of basic and secondary education,” said the Minister of the Presidency, Mariana Vieira da Silva, at a press conference after the meeting of the Council of Ministers. meeting.
In addition to this diploma, an amendment to the legal regime of inclusive education has also been approved, which extends the special conditions of classification tests, hitherto reserved for students with dyslexia, to all students with any specific language disorder.
The new completion conditions for secondary education, already announced in February, keep the compulsory national exams but with a lower weight in the final average, and with the exception of Portuguese, students can choose two subjects they take on the test.
As explained by the Minister of Education, the final average class of students will now be calculated based on the internal grade in each subject and the marks of three exams, one in Portuguese and the rest in the subject of the student’s choice, “depending on the training path.”
On the other hand, national exams are now only 25% of the grade, while also making changes to the weight each subject has for the final average.
“We have introduced a weighting factor in which three-year disciplines are evaluated three times, two-year disciplines twice, and annual disciplines once,” explained Minister Joao Costa, considering a balanced solution.
“We believe that this measure will reverse some of the inflationary behavior of valuations associated with these annual disciplines,” he added.
According to a report published in May by the General Directorate for Education and Science Statistics (DGEEC), which analyzes the internal classifications of students in science and humanities courses between 2017/2018 and 2021/2022, schools are more likely to assign high grades in annual subjects, most of which are not subject to the national examination.
The approved rules will come into force only from the next academic year and gradually. At this time, 11th grade students will be able to choose exams to take, which will affect the final classification, and only after this change in external assessment will affect all secondary school students.
Regarding the calculation of the average, in 2023/2024 the new weighting factor will only apply to students entering year 10 that year, and only in 2025/2026 will it cover all students.
João Costa also added that, on the other hand, the diploma provides for the renewal of the pay amounts for teachers serving in the National Examination Jury, who are still subject to the fine introduced by the Troika.
With regard to inclusive education, the Minister stressed that there are a number of other language impairments that condition the ability to translate and write, and “leaving all these students on the sidelines is no longer appropriate.”
Author: Portuguese
Source: CM Jornal
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