Digital exam shambles: report reveals marking platform “already set for replacement”

Portugal’s trouble-beset rollout of digital marking for this year’s national secondary school exams is being carried out using software the government has already decided to replace, according to a report by Expresso – even as authorities now authorise a further €500,000 in emergency technical support to (try to) keep the system running.

Expresso reveals that the digital marking process relied on platforms the replacement of which had already been planned before this year’s ‘pioneering nationwide digitalisation programme’ even began. These exact systems are at the centre of repeated technical failures that have left teachers, pupils (and their parents) in abject despair.

Teachers responsible for marking the exams have reported being unable to access the necessary platform, missing continuation pages, incomplete student answers, illegible scanned images and marks disappearing from the system after being entered.

According to Expresso, the current marking platform was originally developed in 2018 and updated in 2023 through contracts worth around €50,000 with software company Blat Studio (not Blat Creative Powerhouse, as referred to in reports yesterday). At the same time, the internal platform used to prepare scanned exam papers also experienced problems that affected the work of thousands of teachers.

In other words, despite already having commissioned a replacement platform, the government proceeded with the large-scale digitalisation of this year’s exam marking with one that it clearly didn’t consider ‘up to the job’ – something that will add to the incomprehension of all those affected by the ongoing technical issues.

As Expresso explains, in July 2025, Portugal’s Institute for Educational Assessment (IAVE) awarded a contract worth approximately €1.49 million to Axians, part of the Vinci Group, to develop a new integrated assessment platform, with funding from the EU Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR). The new platform, known as GAEBS, is intended to bring together student registration, exam organisation, marking, publication of results and certification into a single system. However, it is not expected to become operational until 2027. It played absolutely no role in this year’s digital marking ‘process’.

Blat Studio has rejected responsibility for many of the failures reported by teachers – arguing that it has no control over the scanning of exam papers, file submission, user management or the allocation of scripts to markers.

The Ministry of Education has acknowledged problems affecting both the preparation of digitised exam papers, and the marking platform itself.

Minister approves further €500,000

As the problems continue, Education Minister Fernando Alexandre has authorised the public education agency Eduqa to spend up to €500,000 on technological support linked to the digitalisation and marking of national exams.

According to Público, the authorisation allows Eduqa to purchase equipment, contract technical services and, where justified, commission consultancy, specialist studies and other expert work.

The order also gives Eduqa authority to renew existing contracts, choose procurement procedures and appoint evaluation panels. All decisions taken under the authorisation must be reported monthly to the minister.

The additional funding comes as teachers remain under intense pressure to complete marking before the revised deadline – and as parents who have had to cancel holiday plans have threatened to seek compensation.

Fernando Alexandre, meantime, has said 95% of exam papers have now been distributed to markers, while 75% of them have already been corrected. The marking deadline has been extended until July 14, with results due to be published on July 17.

Teachers, however, continue to report unpredictable workloads, with some saying they have received hundreds of additional papers, with only days to go before the deadline. Others say they have been assigned incomplete scripts, questions already marked by colleagues and/ or exam papers from subjects they do not teach.

Many have said they are working evenings and weekends in an effort to ensure students are not negatively affected.

Despite the difficulties, former IAVE officials – and some teachers – have told Expresso they still believe electronic marking offers long-term advantages, including reducing administrative work and making assessment more consistent, but that it cannot become fully reliable before exams themselves are conducted in ‘a native digital format’ (taking out the requirement to have them whisked around the country in order to be ‘digitised’).

source material: Expresso