Government cannot hide behind ‘chaos’ of national exams – teachers’ federation

FENPROF, Portugal’s national federation of teachers, has accused the government of trying to wriggle out of responsibility for what it describes as “chaos” in this year’s national secondary school examinations.

Several “deeply worrying” technical failures have dogged the first ‘fully digital marking process’, says the federation, citing teachers being assigned by schools where they no longer work, retired teachers having been called back to mark papers, and some teachers allocated to mark subjects they have never taught.

Compounding these ludicrous ‘blips’, FENPROF cites delays in the delivery of digitised exam papers, incomplete answer scripts and missing pages.

“It is particularly serious that there are reports from marking groups in which virtually nobody received the full set of exam papers in appropriate conditions,” the federation has said today.

“When an administrative reform threatens the credibility of the national exams, we are no longer looking at a modernisation of the (Portuguese) State. We are looking at a political failure that demands explanations, accountability, and immediate correction,” the FENPROF statement considers, arguing that “the announced savings of tens of millions of euros” due to this new digital process “do not constitute reform” at all. They stand as “a deterioration of public service.”

This was the first year in which the ministry of education, science and technology embarked on a ‘fully digitised’ marking format, and thus to have so many glaring failings does indeed smack of a lack of preparation.

As FENPROF admits, it is not even in favour of these national examinations even being an assessment tool of students’ achievements, but while they are, the state “has the duty to ensure they are conducted with absolute rigour, transparency and fairness” for every student.

Instead, in face of the several anomalies already thrown up, the government appears to be trying to ‘shift responsibility onto intermediate bodies’. And, in FENPROF’s view, this is “unacceptable”.

Thus, it is calling for a “full explanation of who authorised” this ‘administrative reorganisation’ (aka shambles), who certified that the necessary conditions were in place, and who will ultimately take responsibility for problems which risk undermining confidence in a process that is affecting thousands of young people.

The problems principally came to the fore after teachers reported not receiving the access credentials required to begin marking. Portuguese language examinations for 12th-year students were due to start being corrected last Tuesday, a week after pupils sat the exams, but not all exam markers had received the necessary digital access at that point.

The delays were first reported on last Wednesday. On Thursday, the National Examinations Jury acknowledged “some technical difficulties” and said they were being resolved.

As of today, nothing has changed.

It does need to be said that the ‘final results’ are not due to be published until July 10, and therefore the confusion, by then, may have been sorted. But, in FENPROF’s view, this has been an abysmal entry into the brave new world of exam digitisation.

Following on from FENPROF’s criticism, the national exam jury (JNE) has issued a statement to say that teachers will start “gradually” receiving papers to mark from Monday.

In a statement published on the website of the Institute for Education, Quality and Evaluation (EduQA), the JNE said that preparations for the digital marking of national exams are “in the recovery phase, following some technical difficulties.”

Source: LUSA