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Several parents of students in the science-humanities courses of the recurrent modality, who completed secondary school in previous academic years, complain about receiving different treatment compared to students in regular education during the university application process.
The issue at hand is that these students are being required to take three national exams to continue their studies in higher education , contrary to what is required of all other students who completed secondary education in academic years prior to this one (2024/2025).
Isabel Pinheiro, director of the Luís de Camões Externato in Ovar, in the district of Aveiro, says that this is an error in the 2025 General Examination Guide , which regulates the entire process of taking exams and accessing higher education.
“All students in all modalities of secondary education [completed in previous years] do not have to take exams, except for entrance exams, with the exception of the science-humanities students in the recurrent modality, because they [legislators] forgot,” he stated.
The director admits that this situation may be affecting dozens of students in private and public schools across the country that offer recurrent education programs, as well as university students who want to change courses.
“At the Luís de Camões private school alone, there are about 10 students in this situation , including a student who has passed to the second year of college and wants to change courses within the same college, but doesn’t have the ENES form to change and the deadline has already passed,” says the director.
According to the official, it is the system of the schools where the students took the exams that does not allow the issuance of the national secondary education exam report (ENES) , which contains all the student’s final grades in secondary school and the grades obtained in the entrance exams.
Isabel Pinheiro emphasizes that to take the three exams that are now being required, these students will have to return to school to prepare. “This makes no sense at all. The law doesn’t have retroactive effects, or when it does, it’s to benefit people, not to harm them,” she stressed.
The school principal says she has contacted several entities, including the Ministry of Education and the National Examination Board, but has not yet received any response.
Eva Gomes, from Ovar, is the mother of Gonçalo Gomes, a young man who completed secondary education in 2023/2024 and entered the University of Aveiro to study Automation and Production Systems. However, as this was not what he wanted to pursue, he did not enroll at the University and this year he tried again to apply to higher education, to enter Computer Engineering.
The mother says her son took the math exam, which was one of the required entrance exams, because he had already taken the physics and chemistry exam, but now they are also requiring a Portuguese exam. “I questioned people from the public school, I questioned people from the private school he attended, I questioned a lot of people (…), no one told me he needed to take Portuguese, and therefore he didn’t take Portuguese because he had already finished secondary school,” she said.
Eva Gomes says she has already contacted the National Examination Board, but has not received any response, adding that the family is considering taking legal action to appeal this decision. “In our view, there are two issues here. One is the discrimination against these students, and the right must be equal in Portugal for all young people. The second is that when a decree-law, a law, is issued, that decree-law comes into effect from the date of publication. Therefore, if this decree was issued in 2025, it applies to those who finished secondary school in 2025. A law cannot be retroactive,” she said.
The mother also said that her son is following this situation and is very emotionally distressed. “He sees two years of his life spent chasing a dream, and another year that won’t come true because of an injustice. He’s very emotionally devastated, as you can imagine. He and his parents,” she confided.
Lusa tried to obtain clarification from the Ministry of Education and is awaiting a response.
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