Number of students enrolled in secondary exams rises again in Portugal
June 28, 2024
Original Article: https://expresso.pt/sociedade/2024-06-03-numero-de-alunos-inscritos-nos-exames-do-secundario-volta-a-subir-02b0790f
The original article requires translation.
The decisive period for the national secondary education exams, which determine the national competition for access to higher education, starts at the end of next week (Friday, June 14) with a total of 156,667 students registered. The number is higher than last year (plus seven thousand), and in 2023 it had already increased compared to the previous one.
According to data released by the Ministry of Education, these almost 157 thousand students will take 288 thousand national exams. Year 12 Portuguese marks the beginning of the 1st phase of the exams and is also the test with the most registrations, followed by Biology and Geology, Physics and Chemistry A and Mathematics A.
Part of the increase may be explained by changes in the rules for completing secondary education and access to higher education approved by the previous Government and which come into force, in phases, from this academic year onwards .
Students in the 12th year continue to follow the model put into practice exceptionally during the pandemic years, that is, they only take the exams that are requested by the educational institutions/courses to which they want to apply, with a weight of between 35% and 50% of the application average. Exams do not count towards the completion of any subject.
Colleagues who are in the 11th year are partially covered by the changes and, in addition to the mandatory Portuguese exam that they will have to take at the end of the 12th, they will also have to choose two other national tests for two subjects in their curriculum and depending on their secondary education path. And these tests will then be included in the accounts to calculate the final grades.