The inclusion of questions in the Portuguese exam with excerpts from elective study papers (Viagens na Minha Terra, Almeida Garrett, and Amor de Perdição, Camilo Castelo Branco) caused outrage in Escola Secundária de Camões in Lisbon. The institution’s Portuguese Research Department states that the “principle of fairness” is not being followed in relation to students who are to be examined.

“In the Portuguese National Exam / Grade 12 / Stage 1/2021, in Part B of Group I, two excerpts from the works of Almeida Garrett“ Viagens na Minha Terra ”and“ Amor de Perdição ”by Camilo Castelo were presented. Study of Portuguese, in the list of works and texts for literary education in grade 11, the study of these two works is proposed as an alternative (“or”) with the third, A Abóbada, Alexander Herculano. This is only one of these three jobs are required and the choice depends on the decision of the teachers in the Portuguese branch of each school, ”he explains in his statement. The persons in charge of the Faculty of Portuguese Studies at ES de Camões, in order to “ensure that the national examinations correspond to the current teaching documents, Part B of Group I of the Portuguese national exam held by the Portuguese national exam, must submit excerpts relating to the three proposed jobs: in Essential Learning to ensure strict and equitable access to the curriculum in a formal assessment / educational context for students studying A Abóbada Alexandra Herculano. ”“ First of all, it should be noted that this situation could act as an additional stress factor, jeopardizing academic performance not including the Vault passage could have more serious consequences than just a potential increase in stress, ”he explains.

These are questions 4 and 5 of the test, where “students are asked to indicate the opinion of the narrator and the character about“ what they observe in the world in which they live ””. “Vault students were not required to declaratively know the world these Romanesque figures lived in. The question could be answered by reading the passage carefully, but the level of inference to be demonstrated was much more demanding for ES de Camões students and others. schools whose departments preferred to read the text of Herculano, and not those who studied Viagens na Minha Terra or Amor de Perdição “, emphasizes ES de Camões, for which these questions should be optional and optional. response. “Such facts seem unacceptable to us when holding the national exam in Portuguese (or any other discipline), as they call into question the general principle of justice,” concludes the statement. In the same document, ES de Camões’ Department of Portuguese Studies regrets that all students had the same time to complete the test – “those who had contextual information that aided their interpretation and those who did not”.

As a reminder, missing the descriptive geometry exam on Monday led to an increase in testing time. Students who were originally eligible for the 150 minute exam plus 30 minutes of tolerance now have an additional half hour.

Diario de Noticias, Institute for Educational Assessment (IAVE) clarifies, with regard to textual aids and paragraphs in Part B of Group I (Portuguese examination), that “any prior knowledge of the works in question and that this knowledge, in the event that subjects submit answers that are poorly consolidated in the interpretation of the passage in question, is not a guarantee of a more adequate answer. ” “According to the profile of compulsory school graduates, the core values ​​of learning Portuguese include, inter alia, the ability to read and interpret literary texts of different genres, the ability to critically assess the aesthetic aspect of texts and how they display experience and values, the ability to analyze the value of expression for constructing the meaning of the text, the ability to compare texts by topics, ideas and values ​​”, – he explains. According to IAVE,” the points of the tests in Portuguese are mainly aimed at the interpretation of the texts presented, and not at reproducing the systematized content of the texts read in the classroom “, explanation, which is contained in the test information disclosed at the beginning of the school year.

Almost 41,000 students passed the Portuguese national exam, making it the second most enrolled test on 15 July after the 42,055 students in Biology and Geology. 151 863 students were enrolled in 246 499 tests of the first stage of exams.