This position on the deadline for the reopening of the third term of the school year was assumed by António Costa on Rádio Renascença, during the program "As three in the morning", in an interview mainly conducted by journalist Eunice Lourenço.

"There is one thing we know, the deadline for the school calendar, namely for secondary education, to be fulfilled with the highest possible normality is that face-to-face education starts on May 4th. That is to say the limit so that everything can run from normal way, "said the prime minister.

If the face-to-face classes start again until May 4, according to the executive's leader, "the exam season can go on until the end of July, eventually leaving the second season for September, so as not to disturb the normal cycle of August , a moment of collective pause in the educational system ".

However, António Costa made a point of stressing that everything is still open.

"We are following the evolution of [covid-19 in Portugal] day by day. We cannot disarm and we have to measure it. Therefore, we set the next 9th day to make a decision [about the reopening of the school year] with the information that at the time it is available and with the horizon that it is possible to reach ", he explained.

Asked about adjustments in access to Higher Education, the Prime Minister referred that the presidential decree that renews the state of emergency until April 17 creates above all a general framework for a set of opportunities.

"The criterion that we have been using is that of maximum restraint with the minimum of disturbance, and what I wish is that you do not have to change rules specifically for this year, it is only possible to adjust calendars recovering as much time as possible - a time that will not was lost, but in which schools made an enormous effort and so did students ", he replied.

In this interview, the Prime Minister repeated that, next Tuesday, there will be the third meeting between holders of sovereign bodies, party leaders and employers and union confederations with epidemiologists, this time focused on the possibility of reopening the school year.

"We have to be able to finish this school year in the fairest, most equitable and most normalized way possible", he stressed.

António Costa also said that before a decision (on the 9th), he will receive party leaders with parliamentary representation the day before, in parallel with meetings of the National Education Council and the Schools Council.