Portugal's exam grades went out with errors — and schools were only told on Sunday
Portugal's EduQA institute admitted an export glitch corrupted some national exam grades sent to schools on Friday night. A corrected batch followed at 11pm, but schools were only formally warned on Sunday.
Portugal’s national exam season keeps finding new ways to go wrong. After hundreds of papers were posted with their grades marked “suspended”, the EduQA institute admitted on Sunday that some of the grades sent to schools on Friday evening were simply incorrect.
What went wrong with Portugal’s exam grades?
An export error corrupted part of the first batch of results the National Exams Board distributed to schools on Friday at around 7:30pm. EduQA says it caught the problem the same day and pushed a corrected version out at 11pm — but the formal warning to schools only went out on Sunday, two days later. In practice, that means schools spent the weekend working from grade sheets that might not add up, and students comparing marks that had quietly changed underneath them.
EduQA and the National Exams Board are now asking schools to clear up doubts for students and parents. Official guidance sits with the National Exams Board.
When do 9th-grade results come out?
Grades for the 9th-grade final tests were sent to schools on Sunday and should be posted on Monday morning — which, if all goes to plan, would make them the first batch this cycle to arrive without drama.
The episode adds to a bumpy debut for the large-scale digital marking of exams, which had already forced the education minister to admit failures mid-season. The practical advice for families is simple: if a posted grade looks odd against expectations, ask the school to confirm it before making any decisions — appeal deadlines only start counting once the grade sheet is right.
Image: Joseolgon / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
