This announcement was made by António Costa at the end of the Council of Ministers, with the Minister of Education, Tiago Brandão Rodrigues, at his side.

"This third period will start, as scheduled, on the next 14th, without classroom activities. In basic education, from the 1st to the 9th year, the entire third period will continue with distance learning, which will be reinforced with the support television broadcast of pedagogical content that will complement, without replacing, the work that teachers have been maintaining with their students ", said the Prime Minister.

António Costa said that "in order to have the most universal reach possible, these daily broadcasts will be transmitted, starting on the 20th, on the RTP Memória channel, which is accessible not only by cable or satellite, but also through DTT" .

With regard to the form of assessment in these levels of education, the executive leader explained that "it will be done in each school by the teachers who best know the whole educational path of each student, with no tests, nor 9th grade exams".

"In this context, the special support regime for families with children under the age of 12 will be maintained until the end of the school year", he stressed.

Meanwhile, exams for students in the 11th and 12th years have been postponed and will only be conducted for access to Higher Education.

The Prime Minister said today that in secondary education there may still be face-to-face classes and that the exam schedule for the 11th and 12th years is postponed, only covering specific exams for access to Higher Education.

These measures were announced by António Costa at the end of the meeting of the Council of Ministers, stating that the examination schedule for the 11th and 12th years will have the first phase between 06 and 23 July and the second phase between 01 and 07 September ".

"In this way, the teaching activity can extend until June 26," declared the Prime Minister.

With regard to secondary education, António Costa defended that "it is particularly important" that it is still possible to "resume classroom teaching activities, especially since the diversity of subjects is such that one cannot resort to the support of television broadcasting" in these cases.

The Prime Minister then stressed that it is still not possible to make a decision on when they will be able to resume face-to-face classes, depending on the evolution of the fight against the covid-19 pandemic.

"We will therefore work on two plans. The one we prefer, to be able to partially resume the classroom classes of the 11th and 12th during the month of May, without excluding, as plan B, having to continue exclusively the academic year with distance learning, if the evolution of the pandemic requires it. In any case, to ensure greater social distance, less time spent in school and better hygiene, classroom activities will always be very limited ", he said.

In this framework of prevention to prevent the spread of covid-19, the executive leader specified that the face-to-face classes will only cover students from the 11th and 12th years, "keeping those from the 10th year in the distance learning regime".

"There will only be face-to-face classes in the 22 subjects that are subject to a specific exam for access to higher education, continuing all other subjects to be taught at a distance," he added.