Portugal orders audit of exam institute after identical cartoon appears in national test and prep manual

What happened

On Tuesday, 16 June 2026, roughly 80,000 students sat the National Portuguese Exam for 12th grade. One question asked for a critical commentary on a cartoon titled “Child Labour” by Iranian artist Javad Takjoo, showing a child sewing on a wooden horse. The same image had been published in August 2025 in a preparatory exercise book by publisher Leya, accompanied by the caption “What if your pencil were a tool against forced labour?”. The exam version did not reproduce that caption but required an identical analytical task. Teachers and headteachers immediately labelled the duplication unacceptable, warning of a fairness gap between pupils who had used the manual and those who had not.

Ministry reverses its timeline

On Wednesday, the Ministry of Education, Science and Innovation initially defended the exam, saying the question had been written before the Leya manual appeared. By Thursday it retracted that claim. A new statement acknowledged that the prep book had been released in August 2025, while the national exam was only drafted in early 2026. The ministry declared “an objective failure by the team responsible for the exam” and added:

“The use of the image in question should have been avoided by EduQA, given the usual practice of exhaustive verification of exercise books made available by publishers.”

Audit and equity review ordered

Education Minister Fernando Alexandre instructed the General Inspectorate of Education and Science (IGEC) to conduct an audit of EduQA’s internal procedures for setting national secondary-school exams, specifically the step that checks whether items have already been published. The ministry said it would draw consequences once the audit report, which may include corrective measures, is complete. Simultaneously, Alexandre requested a technical opinion from EduQA itself on the impact of the episode on equity among candidates, signalling concerns that the repetition could affect university access.

Schools demand annulment

Several school leaders and teacher representatives insist the offending question must be struck from the exam. Cristina Mota of the Missão Escola Pública movement argued that the question’s reuse “implies the mandatory annulment of this exercise” and suggested artificial-intelligence tools might have been used both by EduQA and the manual's author. Filinto Lima, president of the national school directors’ association ANDAEP, demanded a clear explanation of whether exams are really drafted a year in advance. No formal decision about annulment has been made.

Teachers call it ‘absurd and unjust’

Carlos Ceia, a professor at Universidade Nova, told Lusa:

“It is unacceptable what happened. There are students who were lucky and, because of that, knew the answer; the others did not.”

He called the situation “perfectly absurd and unjust”. Carmo Oliveira of the Portuguese Teachers’ Association described the overlap as “an unfortunate coincidence” and stressed that the manual’s author, a board member of the association, had no access to privileged exam information and has never been an exam setter or auditor. The association said it appoints specialists to audit Portuguese exams and reaffirmed the professionalism of the process.