"The balance is extremely positive. I want to thank all the work done by the principals of the schools, by the educational communities, by the teachers and non-teachers", said the minister.

Tiago Brandão Rodrigues said that the way the first school term, which ends today, demonstrated that the return to face to face education was a good option.

"We must continue to work to continue having this academic year, in a year of pandemic, as normal as possible," he stressed.

Asked if the Government will test students on their return to school after the Christmas holidays, as will happen in other countries, Tiago Brandão Rodrigues replied that "health authorities have been working very closely with schools to ensure that educational establishments are safe places".

"It is in this sense that we will continue to work. Because of the entire articulation between school and health authorities so that whenever there are suspicious or positive cases, the answer will be faster as possible. So we will continue to do", he said.

During the school break the Minister of Education called for everyone to make an effort to "mitigate the effects of the covid-19".

"The Prime Minister has already said it, but I also appeal to families that have children in schools, who know that their students in schools had a set of rules to maintain them during this rest period", he asked.

"We know that we will return to face to face classes at the beginning of January and we have to maintain a set of rules also during Christmas celebrations to ensure that we will not have a further increase in the number of cases", he reinforced.