PS leader calls on PM to ‘say sorry’ over national exams fiasco

Socialist Party (PS) leader José Luís Carneiro has demanded that Prime Minister Luís Montenegro apologise to Portuguese families over what he described as the “absolutely serious” mishandling of this year’s national secondary school examinations.

Speaking as he arrived at the 22nd Congress of the PS Porto District Federation in Vila do Conde today, Mr Carneiro sharply criticised the government following the disruption caused by failures in the electronic marking system, which has forced the postponement of exam results and the rescheduling of second-phase national exams.

“The Minister of Education and the government allowed chaos to take hold in our schools,” said the Socialist leader. “Even more seriously, the minister failed in his responsibility before parliament by trying to conceal the gravity of what was happening.”

Portugal’s Ministry of Education announced on Friday that the publication of first-round exam results and the timetable for second-phase exams would be delayed after technical problems prevented some teachers from receiving examination papers to mark electronically. A revised examination calendar was published today.

Carneiro, who had already demanded explanations from the government last week, escalated his criticism by accusing ministers of attempting to shift responsibility onto school principals and teachers while showing “total insensitivity” towards students and their families.

“If I were prime minister, I would already have apologised to Portuguese families,” he said.

The PS leader also criticised Education Minister Fernando Alexandre over remarks made during a parliamentary hearing, claiming the minister had effectively blamed parents for arranging summer holidays around the examination schedule.

“Families organise their holidays on the assumption that the government will fulfil its responsibilities,” Carneiro said. “I demand that the prime minister apologise to families, apologise to teachers and apologise to the schools of this country.”

He also called on Luís Montenegro to explain which company had been contracted to manage the examination system – arguing that it had failed “at one of the most crucial moments in the country’s collective life.”

In a brief reference to the ongoing heatwave and wildfires affecting Portugal, Carneiro expressed solidarity with emergency services, firefighters and affected communities before returning to the examination controversy.

Yesterday, Fernando Alexandre defended the revised examination timetable, saying the changes were necessary because technical failures in the digital marking process meant some teachers had still not received scripts to assess (albeit he then said the initial schedule, could, at a pinch, have been adhered to).

“There is still part of the process being reinforced, so there is always some uncertainty,” he added. “But the priority is to comply with the revised timetable agreed with EDUQA and the National Examinations Board.”

The Education Ministry says it hopes no further timetable changes will be required, and stresses that applications for higher education are still expected to open on July 20, as originally planned.

In an earlier statement, the ministry apologised for the disruption caused to students, families, teachers and schools by the delays, while insisting every effort was being made to ensure the integrity of the examination process.

But, the situation has clearly been manifestly bungled, and teachers are still warning that they feel the marking schedules are uncomfortably tight.

Only a few days ago, José Luís Carneiro urged the government to change course in what he called its ‘ideological manoeuvres’, and start focusing on matters that “truly affect people’s lives”. National exams, and whether school-leavers get the grades they need for further education, fall into the category of the sort of subject matter that “truly affect people’s lives”.

Source material: LUSA