The President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, approved on Monday a government diploma on a new student assessment regime that reduces “the number of mandatory national exams for completing secondary education.” Students in the sciences, engineering and socio-economic sciences can now complete their secondary education without taking the national math exam.
In a note published on the official website of the President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Souza deplored the “political choice of the government” and stressed that this change “may contribute to the weakening of the national system for assessing the quality of education.” . However, the math exam is still “mandatory for those who want to gain access to higher education in areas where it is needed”, read the note.
According to a statement by the Council of Ministers on 1 June, this Decree-Law “amends the curriculum for basic and secondary education and the guidelines for assessing academic performance, as well as the legal regime for inclusive education.”
“The mandatory list of National Examinations has been changed to require all students to take three National Examinations to reinforce the centrality of internal and ongoing assessment. The Portuguese exam remains compulsory for all, with each student having to pass the other two selected exams. by you depending on your individual path and your choice to continue your education,” the statement said.
At a press conference at the end of this Council of Ministers meeting, Minister of Education João Costa stated that “the final average classification of students will now be calculated on the basis of the internal score in each subject and the scores in three exams, one of which is in Portuguese and the rest in the subject in student’s choice.
“We have introduced a weighting factor in which three-year disciplines are evaluated three times, two-year disciplines twice, and annual disciplines once,” the minister said.
According to João Costa, “this measure will reverse some of the inflationary behavior of valuations associated with these annual disciplines.”
The approved rules come into force from the next academic year gradually.