Description: The discussion about centralization versus decentralization of education and the role of the State versus social groups in conducting education as well as the construction of a consensus concerning the concept of what is a 'good school' versus a 'lousy school' have determined a series of advances and moving backwards in this long process that finally gave Education the status of a real science. Exploring the official documents that determined the formal path for the evolution of the school in Portugal during the 19th Century, we are confronted with the distance between the law and the practice, as well as the lack of knowledge that succeeding governors showed about what had already been ruled and put in practice or determined but not ruled with a lasting legacy for schooling in Portugal today. The official Inspections to the schools all over the country by a corpus of inspectors named by the Government never operated regularly until the last decades of the century. However, there were three extraordinary inspections: in 1863, 1867 and 1875. The answers to the inquiries written by the Inspectors during their visits to the schools and their final reports or their comments joining the answers to the inquiries give us the possibility to look to what were the Governors' concerns as well as revealing how the school was. In this paper we will discuss the results of the Inspections of 1867 and 1875, analysing the inquiries, questions and answers, and the Inspectors' comments and will try to stress some crucial questions such as how can inspections have a positive role in education improving changes in the authorities' minds as well as in the schools themselves. Besides being an instrument of the State control system, how can these inspectors' reports contribute to knowledge in History of Education. Methodology: Content analysis of primary sources Conclusions: As we say in the abstract, we will try to stress some crucial questions such as how can inspections have a positive role in education improving changes in the authorities' minds as well as in the schools themselves. We also expect that other research experiences in other European countries can help to say how can these inspectors' reports contribute to knowledge in History of Education.