Education minister under fire, remaining largely silent in parliament

Portugal’s Education Minister Fernando Alexandre came under sustained fire in parliament this moring after speaking only once during an emergency debate on the country’s troubled national exam marking process, leaving opposition parties frustrated by what they described as the government’s refusal to answer key questions.

The urgent debate, requested by the PCP Communist Party, was dominated by criticism of the government’s handling of the rollout of digital marking for secondary school exams, which has been plagued by technical failures, delays and repeated changes to the publication timetable.

For much of the session, Alexandre remained silent, listening to criticism from across the political spectrum while consulting with his secretary of state and, at one point, telephoning PSD parliamentary leader Hugo Soares.

When he finally addressed MPs, he insisted there was no need for any further changes to the university admissions calendar, despite acknowledging that mistakes had been made.

“There is no need to alter any higher education admissions timetable,” the minister said, arguing that the three-day postponement already announced was sufficient and would not disrupt students’ applications.

He also assured students that they would receive PDF copies of their marked exams today, replacing an earlier plan to provide access through online links.

Alexandre acknowledged that the process had caused disruption for students and families and promised that improvements would be introduced before the second phase of national exams.

“There will be corrections to the errors that arose during this process,” he said, adding that ‘lessons had been learned’ and further improvements would be made ahead of next year’s exams.

Defending his decision to delay the release of this year’s exam results, Alexandre said he had taken political responsibility after concluding that publishing grades on the originally scheduled date could have jeopardised the integrity of the assessment process.

“Nothing can put the rigour of evaluation at risk,” he said.

The minister also insisted the National Examinations Jury had the conditions and responsibility to deliver grades to schools.

His intervention, however, did little to calm opposition criticism.

Because Alexandre used all of his allotted speaking time in a single speech, he was unable to respond to follow-up questions from MPs, prompting repeated complaints from opposition benches.

At one stage, MPs from the Left Bloc (BE) and CHEGA appealed to parliamentary speaker José Pedro Aguiar-Branco after the minister declined to intervene again.

Aguiar-Branco acknowledged the unusual situation but noted that parliamentary rules do not require ministers to use all of their available speaking opportunities.

Following Alexandre’s speech, the Communist Party said it had received reports from schools suggesting exam results might not be published until Monday rather than today.

CHEGA said it had received similar information – and even offered 30 seconds of its own speaking time to allow the minister to respond.

The government declined the offer, with Parliamentary Affairs Minister Carlos Abreu Amorim arguing that all necessary explanations had already been given.

The opposition remained unconvinced.

PCP parliamentary leader Paula Santos accused the government of “burying its head in the sand” and ignoring the anxiety experienced by students and families.

She argued that the crisis stemmed from the government’s decision to introduce a new digital marking system before the necessary conditions were in place.

The PS Socialist Party praised teachers for their work and stressed that it supported digitalisation in principle, but criticised the government’s implementation, arguing students had been treated as “guinea pigs” in an experiment that went wrong.

CHEGA renewed criticism of Alexandre’s leadership, with MP Rui Cardoso suggesting that “those who avoid scrutiny are not worthy of the office they hold.”

The Left Bloc reiterated its threat to seek a parliamentary inquiry into the handling of the exam process, while LIVRE questioned whether all students would be able to access copies of their exams free of charge and request reviews if necessary.

Liberal Initiative MP Angélique da Teresa also mocked the minister’s performance, joking that Alexandre himself had “failed the exam season” and remarking that “only because of the teachers will the results be published today—so we hope.”

Despite the unabating criticism, the government continues to insist that the revised timetable remains on track, and that the difficulties encountered during the first phase of digital marking will not derail this year’s higher education admissions process.

Source: Expresso