In recent weeks, Portugal witnessed what author Edgar Torrão describes as an "implosion" of the national exam process and access to higher education. The article portrays a chaotic situation involving technical failures on the Eduqa digital platform, including disappearing exams, missing continuation pages, questions being swapped between students, and grade alterations. The Minister of Education, Science and Innovation (MECI) is severely criticized for initially blaming third parties for the failures and for relying on supporters who invoked "divine inspiration" or spoke of "sabotage," instead of taking responsibility.
Edgar Torrão, the article's author, sent a letter to MECI on July 24th expressing deep concern about the instability and insecurity generated. In the letter, he argues that the minister's assertion that "no student will be harmed" is a fallacy, since the system has lost control and cannot be properly audited. Torrão warns that students who may have benefited from the failures would not request a review, making it impossible to guarantee that no one was harmed.
The author proposes two solutions: the exceptional annulment of national exams for the purpose of access to higher education, allowing students to apply based on schools' internal grades; or, alternatively, ensuring that any student may apply to the first phase of the national competition using the best grade obtained, regardless of the phase in which it was achieved. Torrão argues that these measures are necessary to restore justice and equality, and that maintaining the schedule and rules as if nothing had happened would transfer the risk of a failed process onto the students.
The article concludes with criticism of the lack of response from both the government and the opposition, which, according to the author, are more interested in "the MAI serial drama" (Ministry of Internal Administration) than in the future of young students. Torrão considers what happened to be extremely serious and that apologies are not enough; justice and equality must be restored in a matter that continues to deserve only silence from the authorities.
