MEC admits error in publishing those approved in Sisu 2024

The Ministry of Education (MEC) admitted this Friday (2) that “there was an improper disclosure of provisional results” from the Unified Selection System (Sisu), not yet approved, for 25 minutes on the morning of January 30th. According to the ministry, the incident is being rigorously investigated.

The Sisu result, according to the notice, was scheduled to be released on January 30th. The undue disclosure frustrated students, who were already celebrating passing the chosen course, but after the updated results realized that they had not been selected in the regular call.

“What happened was an improper disclosure of provisional results, not yet approved, for 25 minutes on the morning of January 31st. The incident is being rigorously investigated. The system is secure and the official results are not modified”, explained the MEC in a note sent to the press.

On the day the results were announced, Sisu’s page became unstable and went offline. On the same day, the MEC reported that it “identified technical problems in the system and restarted the approval protocols”, postponing the release of the results until Wednesday, the 31st. The list released on the 31st differed from the first result that was improperly released.

After the incident, the National Union of Students (UNE) classified the situation as “a great absurdity” and reported that it will launch a platform for candidates to report it.

The Unified Selection System (Sisu) is an electronic system managed by the MEC for vacancies offered by public higher education institutions throughout Brazil. The system selects students based on the average grade of the National High School Exam (Enem) up to the limit of vacancies available, by course and type of competition, according to the choices of registered candidates and socioeconomic profile for Law of Quotas.

Summons the MEC for clarification

On Thursday (31), Senator Alessandro Vieira (MDB-SE) filed with the Senate Education Committee a request to summon Minister Camilo Santana and the Secretary of Higher Education of the MEC, Denise Pires, to provide clarifications on the problems occurring in the process of publishing Sisu results. The request must be approved by the commission to schedule the hearing with the minister.

For Vieira, the successive instabilities of the systems affect students’ planning. Furthermore, the selection process calendars no longer coincide, and deadline extensions cause lack of coordination with the universities’ academic calendars.

“In addition to routine operational problems, the delay in official communication and the lack of clarity regarding the causes and measures to be adopted by the Ministry in relation to the effects of this instability, especially in relation to the calendar of other programs, requires the minister’s attendance to that clarifies how the MEC is resolving the impacts caused by instability and how it is acting so that the frequent systemic problems noted in the Sisu, ProUni and Fies processes are avoided”, states Vieira in the request.