Government will create a program to encourage students to take the Enem

Minister Camilo Santana, of Education, announced this Tuesday (16) the launch of the Pé-de-Meia program, which will grant a benefit to students in the 3rd year of high school to take the National High School Exam (Enem). President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) will sanction the law in the afternoon, establishing a type of savings grant to support low-income students during high school.

The Pé-de-Meia program seeks to motivate regular high school students with financial assistance throughout the three years of the course. However, in the final year, students will receive an additional amount to cover the costs associated with participating in Enem.

Minister Santana emphasized the importance of clarifying that there are no costs for young people and highlighted the relevance of Enem as an opportunity to access higher education. Information provided by the ministry at the end of last year indicates that R$6.1 billion will be sent to the fund.

“It will be a way to encourage young people in regular high school who will receive this financial aid in the three years of high school, but, in the last year, in the 3rd year, they will receive a percentage, an amount to take the Enem test. ”, explained Santana.

Despite the aid, the student will have to provide compensation to the ministry, such as enrolling at the beginning of each academic year, maintaining school attendance of 80% of the total teaching hours, being approved at the end of each year and participating in exams such as the System Basic Education Assessment (Saeb) and Enem.

Data from the Ministry of Education indicate that approximately half of the students who completed high school in 2023 participated in the last Enem. Santana highlighted that, even among those registered, many stopped taking the test. Of the 1.4 million registered graduates, only 1 million actually participated in the exam.

“We need to identify the reasons in each network, in each state. And dialogue with the networks to identify the reasons for this”, stated the minister.

In addition to the announcement of the Pé-de-Meia program, the National Institute of Educational Studies and Research Anísio Teixeira (Inep) announced that 60 candidates achieved a thousand marks in the Enem 2023 essay. the maximum score increased significantly, going from 18 to 60.

Within this group, only four candidates come from the public education network, despite 40% of participants in the national exam coming from this network.

The director of Basic Education Assessment at the Ministry of Education, Rubens Lacerda, attributed the increase in maximum grades to the essay’s theme: “challenges in confronting the invisibility of care work carried out by women in Brazil”.

According to him, the topic favored a more fluid and in-depth discussion.