Portuguese education minister says 97% of second-phase exams graded and 70% of regrade requests lifted marks

Grading progress and timelines

Education Minister Fernando Alexandre appeared before the Assembly of the Republic's Permanent Committee on 3 August to answer questions on the troubled digitisation of national exams. He told deputies that 97% of responses from about 90,000 second-phase exams had been classified by early afternoon, while half of all re-evaluation requests were already concluded. The second-phase correction and regrade results must be known by Friday, 7 August, but teachers have to finish their work by Tuesday. Alexandre said he saw no reason to alter the deadline for higher education applications and noted that the number of candidates had already surpassed the level recorded at the same point in 2025.

"The improvements and corrections introduced in the digitisation and electronic classification process are producing results, as shown by the way the second phase has been proceeding — with normality, calm, without upheaval, without disruption, without noise."

Re-evaluation outcomes

More than 20,000 first-phase exam re-evaluation requests were lodged, tripling the volume of the previous year. By Monday afternoon, 50% of those reviews were finished. The minister disclosed that 70% of students who sought a regrade saw their marks increase, 20% suffered a drop, and 10% had no change. Pupils whose grade rises will have the 25-euro fee refunded.

"We have 70% of students whose mark went up — as used to happen in previous years — 20% had a decrease, and 10% kept the grade, which means 70% of students will get their 25 euros back."

Parliamentary criticism

The hearing was marked by sharp exchanges. Chega leader André Ventura accused the government of shielding the internal administration minister at the education minister's expense and declared that a parliamentary inquiry would go ahead. Iniciativa Liberal deputy Angélique Teresa pressed Alexandre on whether he had been misled or had allowed the Recovery and Resilience Plan to push him into the crisis. Socialist deputy Porfírio Silva said his party backed reform but not implementation that was reckless and unprepared. Left Bloc deputy Fabiano Figueiredo mocked Alexandre as "Fernando the digitaliser" and compared him to an inconstant medieval king.

"We are not against reforms. We are against imprudence and lack of preparation to implement. And we are against technological illusions that lose sight of pedagogical objectives."

Missing exams

Outside the chamber, unresolved individual cases continued to surface. The Viseu Administrative and Fiscal Court ordered the EduQA institute to deliver the digitised national Portuguese exam of 12th-grade student Martim, after two-thirds of his answers disappeared from the first phase. His father said the fragment received from the school was "full of irregularities". The minister stated that the situation had been resolved during the weekend, but the family said on Monday afternoon that they still had not received the full paper. Separately, the newspaper Expresso reported that 9th-grade student Lara cannot obtain her basic-education completion certificate because her maths exam cannot be traced, putting her vocational school place at risk.

Minister's assurances

Alexandre repeatedly pledged that no pupil would be disadvantaged in accessing higher education and that mechanisms exist to handle each case. He acknowledged errors in the first phase, apologised, and said that when the process concludes, an independent commission will examine what went wrong. He also emphasised that, for the first time in 15 years, teachers who carry out the grading are being paid for that work.

"The way we have dealt with all the errors is to try to solve them. I can guarantee that no student will be affected, because there are mechanisms to treat every case that may arise — and they arise every year, but Portuguese society was not aware of them."