Exam marking fiasco: teachers threaten legal action; Opposition considers parliamentary inquiry

Portugal’s exam marking fiasco lurched into new territory today as the country’s largest teachers’ union threatened legal action over ongoing failures in the digital correction system, while opposition leader José Luís Carneiro demanded answers from Prime Minister Luís Montenegro, raising the prospect of a parliamentary inquiry.

The dispute comes despite the government’s announcement that teachers marking secondary school national exams will receive overtime pay in recognition of the extra work caused by weeks of technical failures that have disrupted the process.

Teachers’ union considers complaint to prosecutors

FENPROF, the National Federation of Teachers, says it is considering filing a complaint with the Public Prosecutor’s Office on July 17 (Friday), seeking a formal investigation into responsibility for the problems that have plagued this year’s ‘move’ to a digital marking system.

FENPROF secretary-general Francisco Gonçalves said the union wants to ensure responsibility for the failures rests with the Ministry of Education, and is not foisted onto teachers.

“The ministry cannot place responsibility for these constraints on teachers,” he told RTP Notícias.

While welcoming the government’s decision to compensate exam markers, Gonçalves argued that payments merely reflect existing legal obligations. Of course teachers have to be paid when working overtime – “but this is not ordinary overtime,” he stressed. “Teachers are working on their days off to solve a problem caused by the Ministry of Education’s incompetence. This is unacceptable.”

The government has yet to confirm how the additional payments will be calculated, with Education Minister Fernando Alexandre expected to announce these details shortly.

FENPROF has also rejected suggestions that teachers may have to postpone their summer holidays because of the delayed exam timetable.

“There has been no national emergency requiring teachers to give up their holidays. What there has been is political incompetence,” said Gonçalves.

According to the union, technical problems, which the government keeps trying to say have been solved, remain unresolved just two days before exam marks are due to be submitted. Teachers continue to receive new questions to mark at short notice, while reports keep coming through of missing exam papers, exam papers ‘incorrectly assigned’ and faults affecting continuation pages.

PS demands explanations from PM Montenegro

The controversy has also prompted sharp criticism from Socialist Party (PS) leader José Luís Carneiro, who called on the prime minister to personally explain how confidence in the national examination system will be restored.

“The prime minister cannot continue to downplay an issue that is extremely serious for thousands of people,” he said today, while attending a party congress in Vieira do Minho.

Mr Carneiro repeated complaints that teachers specialising in one subject are (still) receiving exam papers from another (this being an example of ‘exam papers incorrectly assigned’). He also alleged that some markers have been instructed to grade incomplete exam scripts.

“That amounts to fraud in the assessment process,” he said.

Mr Carneiro has also dismissed as ‘insufficient’ the government’s decision to pay teachers extra money for the trouble they are being put through.

“Teachers are not for sale (…) The prime minister must explain how he intends to guarantee the reliability and credibility of this entire process,” the PS leader repeated, warning that if the government fails to provide satisfactory explanations, the PS may seek the creation of a parliamentary committee of inquiry.

“We cannot rule out a parliamentary inquiry because the circumstances are far too serious – particularly for the thousands of families and students who have spent 12 years preparing for higher education,” he said.

José Luís Carneiro also criticises Luís Montenegro’s handling of this crisis – accusing him of showing a lack of urgency.

“The prime minister returned from the Club World Cup while families were living through moments of profound anxiety, and then chose to respond to this issue at a music festival,” he said. “It demonstrates a level of insensitivity that, in my view, is making him one of the worst prime ministers since Portugal’s return to democracy.”

Confidence in the system questioned

The digital marking process for Portugal’s soon-to-be school leavers (most focused on getting the grades they need for higher education/ university) has been beset by repeated technical failures, forcing the government to postpone the publication of results and delay the second examination session.

Although the government has pledged to release results on July 17, Mr Carneiro believes deeper concerns remain unresolved, even if the July 17 target is reached.

“We are facing a crisis of confidence in the assessment system,” he said. “Even if results are published on July 17, thousands of students may request reviews. What happens if exam papers are incomplete or pages are missing? People need to understand the seriousness of what is happening.”

The mounting criticism adds further pressure on the Ministry of Education as it seeks to restore confidence in a digital exam marking system that was initially presented as one of the government’s ‘ambitious educational reforms’, but which quickly unravelled into an unmitigated shambles that has already cost millions of euros (most of the money made available through the EU funded PRR, plan for recovery and resilience).

Source material: Expresso/ LUSA