School evaluation will have ″exceptional measures″

The Ministry of Education is finalizing a set of “exceptional measures regarding assessment in schools” due to the impact of the pandemic on this school year. Minister Tiago Brandão Rodrigues guarantees that the legislative process is in the final phase and the measures will be known “very soon, this week or next”.

The Government promotes the consultation of the autonomous regions and partners in the Education sector and, at the end of this process, the package of measures will be submitted for approval by the Council of Ministers, which could happen this week. “This decree-law will again adjust the school evaluation, since, this year, we continue to have consequences of the pandemic. Our students will know and only then does it make sense to announce what the measures are”, he also told Agência Lusa.

pandemic disturbed

On the table is the return of the 9th grade exams, but the results will not count towards the final grade. That is, it will be a kind of benchmarking test.

As for the measurements for the 2nd, 5th and 8th years, the JN found that the application of tests to all students is in the equation, instead of carrying them out by sampling, as happened in the last two years .

Filinto Lima, president of the National Association of Directors of Groups and Public Schools, disagrees with the generalization of benchmarking tests, considering that learning throughout this school year continued to be conditioned by the pandemic, with a constant coming and going of students and teachers.

The assessment tests must maintain the model of the last two years”, he concludes, being, however, favorable to the realization of the 9th year exams, as long as they do not count towards the students’ final grade.

This is also the position of Manuel António Pereira. The president of the National Association of School Leaders underlines that carrying out the 9th grade exams as if they were an assessment test is in line with the proposal he made to the Government. “Our understanding is that assessment tests are important for students.”

The Government will also decide, in the coming days, on the rules for access to Higher Education and, as JN advanced, the opinion of the National Commission for Access to Higher Education recommends that students only take national exams in the subjects required as evidence for admission to Higher Education.