Enem: test criticized by the right was taken under Bolsonaro – 11/08/2023 – Education

Of all the questions that appeared on the first day of Enem 2023, last Sunday (5), 86% were prepared during the Jair Bolsonaro (PL) government. The data was presented by the president of Inep (National Institute of Educational Studies and Research), Manuel Palácios, this Wednesday (8) in the Chamber of Deputies.

Palácios was called to the house’s education committee to talk about the exam, the target of attacks from right-wing politicians and the ruralist bench. This is the first edition of Enem under this mandate of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT). The test continues next Sunday (12).

On Monday (6), the Agricultural Parliamentary Front published a note calling for the annulment of two issues, which deal with the Amazon and the cerrado. The note says that the questions have an ideological bias, without “scientific criteria”, and create a negative and distorted image of agribusiness.

As I had already done in an interview with Sheet, the president of Inep defended the technical criteria for preparing the exam tests. The process involves choosing teacher educators through a public notice. The last one occurred in 2020.

According to the information presented in the Chamber, 82 of the 95 questions (86%) that made up the first day of the test were prepared between 2019 and 2021, which includes the Bolsonaro government.

In the language test, 43 of the 45 were taken during this period. In the human sciences, which caused the most controversy, 39 of the 50 items are related to productions between 2019 and 2021 — students only ask 45 questions in this test as well, but 50 appear because they choose between the five English questions or five English questions. Spanish at the time of registration.

“We do our best to ensure freedom and independence in the construction of these instruments [de avaliação]. The intervention of the Inep presidency cannot happen. Because, I repeat, teachers are responsible for taking tests. And the selection process for these teachers is public and follows a set of rules,” he said.

At the meeting, held on Wednesday morning, right-wing parliamentarians insisted that this Enem had an ideological approach, which Palácios refuted. A Sheet he had said, on Tuesday (7), that the exam questions do not ask the student to agree with topics covered, but to understand what the texts say.

He highlighted, in the Chamber, that “the correct answer does not depend on opinion” and is related to the assessment of cognitive abilities. He also said that the texts chosen by the drafters are extracted from legitimate sources recognized by the scientific community and that the composition of the drafting teams is made using public criteria.

Palácios also defended, once again, the plurality of the test and the normality of exam topics causing controversy.

“Human sciences deal with societal problems, so they tend to be more provocative than other topics,” he says. “[Há] excerpts that are clearly liberal and are present in the test, but it is also not an issue that matters”.

Regarding accusations that the test had been used to attack agribusiness, Palácios said that there was no such objective and insisted that the focus is on assessing cognitive comprehension skills.

“Of course Enem does not demonize agribusiness, of course Inep does not demonize agribusiness, of course we all recognize the immense importance of agribusiness for the country. But this does not need to be said, it is somewhat obvious and does not seem to be a relevant topic in this discussion”, he said.

It is not the first time that Enem has been the target of attacks from political groups because of test issues. Former president Bolsonaro and right-wing allies have already accused the test of left-wing indoctrination.

Report from Sheet published in 2021 showed that questions that caused controversy and were targeted by Bolsonaro and his allies had technical quality to assess competencies. In other words, they were efficient in identifying the best candidates.

Enem questions are produced by university professors based on notices prepared by the government. They still go through a long review and validation process by a commission.

The items are pre-tested (several people answer the questions) so that various attributes can be calibrated, such as degree of difficulty and chance of getting the shot right. This is part of the mathematical model adopted in Enem, the TRI (Item Response Theory).

In the case of Enem 2023, the two criticized questions contain excerpts adapted from scientific articles. Both ask the participant to interpret what the authors wanted to convey.

In the question about the cerrado (89 on the white test), the text of the statement addresses the territorialization of agribusiness and says that its logic has overlapped with the knowledge of peasants. The excerpt says that “the capitalist model subordinates men and women to the logic of the market” and that there are other negative factors, such as “heavy mechanization”, “symbolic violence, super-exploitation, rains of poison and violence against the person”.

The test asks participants to interpret what is written and point out what “the elements described in the text, regarding the territorialization of production”, demonstrate.

The official answer sheet has not yet been released — it will only be released after the second test has been administered —, but according to an unofficial correction published by Sheetthe correct alternative would be: “Siege of peasants, making it impossible to maintain living conditions.”

In the item dealing with the Amazon (70th in the blank test), the excerpt indicates that “it is clear that the growth in deforestation has to do” with the “expansion of soybeans”, but also states that the “logic that generates deforestation is articulated by the tripod of land grabbers, loggers and ranchers”.

The statement asks the participant to indicate which alternative, “in the author’s view”, explains what triggers “the central problem of the situation described”. According to the unofficial template, the correct alternative would be: “the appropriation of vacant areas”.