The tests will start this week in digital format, which will reduce paperwork for teachers, who will no longer have to grade the full tests.

Between 2 and 11 May, primary schools will take the tests to assess the performance of their 2nd year students in Artistic Education and Physical Education. A week later, between 16 and 26 May, the "season" of Physical Education tests will start for 5th year students, and Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) for 8th year students.

More than 250 thousand primary school kids are registered, but teachers have already warned that there are schools with network problems and some computers may break down during the tests, without having enough technicians to give support on the days of the tests.

In an interview with Lusa, Luís Pereira dos Santos, president of the Institute for Educational Assessment (IAVE), admitted that some schools still do not meet the "ideal conditions", but explained that these tests can be done in offline mode, not being dependent on the Internet network, and that students can be divided into two shifts so that there is equipment for everyone.