Payments at the health facility were to be shared equally among the staff regardless of grade, qualifications or position.
Nonetheless, respondents also pointed out that APEs could possibly be admitted under another category (the General Statute of the State Officials and Agents), which only requires Grade 7 level qualification (Assembleia da República, 2009).
These include the proportion of the population with no qualifications, those with degree level qualifications, those in the higher social/income grades and those who report that they are in good health.
Managing human resources in health care involves organising groups of workers with different professional backgrounds, skills, grades, qualifications, expertise and experience in order to achieve optimal patient care.
These should be assessed within a single diploma framework with annual "intermediate" levels, based mostly if not entirely on internal school assessments, leading to a final graded leaving qualification secured mainly through a high-stakes, public examination at 18 or 19.
It said standards vary widely from school to school and it believed grading the qualification would reduce that effect.
It went on to say that grading the qualification would also strengthen its position in the curriculum and, crucially, with universities too.
The government has been making it clear that public money will be funnelled into teaching and training three priority groups: 16- to 18-year-olds, adults lacking basic literacy and numeracy skills, and, from 2005, adults who did not pick up a level 2 qualification (five GCSEs grade A to C, or the equivalent) at school.
Schools are attempting to manipulate the exams system by issuing spurious appeals against results in an effort to improve their pupils' grades, the qualifications regulator has said.
