Portugal's education ministry grapples with exam correction crisis

The correction of Portugal's national secondary exams has been plagued by digital platform failures, missing pages and mis‑assigned items, forcing thousands of teachers to work overtime under tight deadlines. The Ministry of Education announced it would pay overtime to all teachers involved in the correction, describing the payment as “recognition of extraordinary effort”.

Teachers' unions and the Federação Nacional da Educação (FNE) argue that the overtime payment is a legal obligation, not a special reward, and call for better working conditions, planning and contingency measures. The Fenprof teachers’ federation criticised the process as “amateurism” and demanded accountability from the minister, Fernando Alexandre. Opposition parties, including the PS and PCP, have asked the minister to clarify whether incomplete exams have already been graded and have called for a parliamentary debate before the results are published.

The Ministry reported that more than 75% of the papers had been graded and expressed confidence that the results would be posted on July 17, after a brief postponement of the second exam phase. Meanwhile, the Eduqa platform introduced a “Report” button for teachers to flag irregularities, but questions remain about how classified incomplete responses will be handled.