Lisbon, July 9, 2026 (Lusa) - The company that developed the platform used to correct national exams in Portugal says it followed the specifications set by the Institute for Education, Quality and Assessment (EduQA) and only intervenes in the system “upon request”.
“BLAT developed the marking platform for IAVE/EduQA and is responsible for its design and development, in accordance with the specifications set by IAVE/EduQA, intervening at the latter’s request,” the company stated in a response to the Lusa news agency.
For the first time this year, the 11th and 12th-year exams, which are still sat on paper, are being marked digitally – a process which involves them being scanned and only then distributed to teachers for marking.
In this process, the answer sheets are first scanned and uploaded to the exam processing and handling platform, managed by the Institute for Education, Quality and Assessment (EduQA), and only then uploaded to the distribution and marking platform.
According to the minister of education, science and innovation, BLAT was the only external entity involved in the process, acting as the company responsible for developing the distribution and marking platform, which has been in use since 2018, at that time under the guidance of the Institute for Educational Assessment (IAVE) (an entity which has since been dissolved, with its functions taken over by the newly created EduQA).
Since the start of the exam marking process, the IT systems have been experiencing problems, particularly relating to the digitisation of exam papers.
To resolve the faults in the exam processing and handling platform, EduQA recently sought the support of an external consultancy firm – Deloitte – which, according to the minister, is also monitoring the remaining stages of the process.
When asked about the nature of its current involvement, the company responsible for the marking platform stated only that it intervenes “at the request” of EduQA and denied any responsibility for the digitisation errors.
“BLAT is not responsible for the digitisation of exam papers, quality control, file submission, user management, determining which papers are marked, when they are marked or by whom, nor for any other operational procedures involved in the marking process,” the company states.
In its response to Lusa, BLAT explains that the platform “merely makes the files available to markers as it receives them from external systems and makes the exam papers available when the authority so decides”.
On Monday, the platform was down for several hours due to a “vulnerability” in the system’s security, as explained by the minister of education.
The system was again unavailable on Wednesday between midnight and 2.00 am, during which time it underwent further maintenance “to optimise processes”, explained Fernando Alexandre.
When asked about the two technical interventions on the system, BLAT did not clarify the reasons, nor its role in identifying and resolving the issues.
MCA/AYLS // AYLS
Lusa
