This Monday, the President of the Republic critically proclaimed the new assessment regime for secondary education, deploring the government’s political choice to reduce the number of mandatory national exams for completion of this level of education.
It is a legislative decree approved by the Council of Ministers on 1 June. Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa particularly disputes the case of mathematics.
In a note published on the Internet on the official website of the Presidency of the Republic, the head of state mentions that the reduction in the number of compulsory national exams “will allow the completion of secondary education in science and technology and socio-economic sciences without taking the state exam in mathematics”.
“Change that is not the result of conducting a well-known independent study, nor of a more in-depth public discussion, nor even of the consultation of national mathematics associations,” adds Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, for whom this change “could contribute to the weakening of the national assessment of the quality of learning”.
The President of the Republic nevertheless proclaimed this diploma, “considering, on the other hand, that such a mathematics examination will remain compulsory for those who wish to access higher education, in areas where it is essential”.
According to the statement of the Council of Ministers of June 1, this decree law “amends the curriculum of primary and secondary education and the guiding principles of learning evaluation, as well as the legal regime of inclusive education”.
“The mandatory list of national final exams is amended, establishing that all students take three national exams to strengthen the centrality of internal and continuous assessment. The Portuguese exam remains compulsory for all, with each student required to take two other exams chosen by you, depending on the individual path you have taken and your choices with a view to continuing your studies,” the statement reads.
In a press conference at the end of this meeting of the Council of Ministers, the Minister of Education, João Costa, said that “the final average classification of students will now be calculated on the basis of the internal mark of each subject and the marks of three exams, of which one Portuguese and the rest a subject of the student’s choice”.
“We have introduced a weighting factor in which the triennial disciplines score three times, the biennials twice and the annual ones once,” said the minister.
According to João Costa, “the measure will reverse some of the inflationary behavior of figures associated with these annual disciplines”.
The approved rules come into effect progressively from the next academic year.
Source: DN
