The Education Minister stated in a communication that “some school groups reported technical issues with item 2 of the exam to the National Examination Board (JNE),” although he did not specify which groups, mentioning only that it was “a limited problem that did not affect students in general.”
Fernando Alexandre further mentioned that students encountering this technical issue on the digital platform “were in classes where the majority did not experience a problem,” adding that the exam item involved “associating three elements from one column with elements from another column.”
“Some students reported receiving an error message when making the second association,” the statement read, assuring that “no student will be disadvantaged in their evaluation due to this platform issue.”
Today, 9th-grade students undertook the first of two final basic education exams, but various platform failures complicated the assessment process, according to school reports.
“There were quite a few problems,” summarized the president of the National Association of School Leaders (ANDE), explaining that most issues were related to the platform used for the exams.
Manuel Pereira noted that during the two mathematics exam sessions held today—the first at 09:30 and the second at 12:00—the program frequently crashed. In some cases, a restart was necessary, while in others, the exam page would close or the question menu would disappear.
“My school has a good IT system and an excellent network, yet it was a lot of work for everyone,” said the director of the General Serpa Pinto School Group in Cinfães, emphasizing that all teaching staff were mobilized to support the final 3rd cycle exams.
After the Ministry of Education, Science, and Innovation (MECI) decided last year to retain the paper format because the previous ministerial team, led by João Costa, had not ensured the necessary conditions, this marks the first time that 9th-grade exams are conducted digitally.
In February, students participated in trial exams to test the digital format, identify issues, and prepare schools for the official assessments.
Last week, the president of the National Association of Public School Directors (ANDAEP), Filinto Lima, stated that schools did everything to be prepared, but today the main failure came from MECI services.
