Strike leaves students unable to sit university entrance exams
Unions say 90 percent of teachers stayed away, while ministry claims most candidates were able to take test
A massive teachers' strike in Portugal on Monday left thousands of students unable to take the first module of their university entrance exams: Portuguese.
The education sector is up in arms over cutbacks being imposed by the conservative government of Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho. Portugal had to accept a 78-billion-euro bailout from the European Union and the IMF in 2011, and has since embarked on a series of severe austerity measures.
According to labor unions, 90 percent of the country's public school teachers adhered to the strike. The education minister, Nuno Crato, said that 70 percent of students had taken the exam due to the fact that only a handful of monitors are needed.
The press calculated that 20,000 students missed the exam, which has been rescheduled for July 2. The unions have not yet decided whether to strike again on that date.