MEC excludes Enem from consultation on the new high school – 04/28/2023 – Education

The MEC (Ministry of Education) opened on Monday (24) an online consultation on the reform of secondary education that had a question about the Enem. This Thursday (27), however, the question about the exam disappeared from the survey.

Freezing previously planned changes in the Enem to adapt it to the new format of the stage was the greatest consequence of the decision of the Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) government to suspend the implementation schedule of the reform.

In a first version of the public consultation, the tenth question talked about the restructuring of the test and asked for agreement, or not, with the statement that the Enem should be organized only from the common part of the high school curriculum. The item appeared in the questionnaire at least until the afternoon of Wednesday (26), but in the early evening of the following day it was deleted.

The reform divided high school classes into two parts: one is common for all students, with subjects such as Portuguese and mathematics, while the other is made up of electives, the so-called formative itineraries —divided into five areas: languages, mathematics, science humanities, natural sciences and professional education.

That is, the topic about the Enem in the open consultation questioned whether the exam should be based on all classes or just the part common to all students.

The schedule defined in the Jair Bolsonaro (PL) government predicted that from 2024 the Enem would be adequate to have specific tests for each itinerary. Last month, however, the Lula administration suspended implementation and temporarily canceled changes to the test.

Thus, the withdrawal of the question about the caused strangeness among MEC technicians consulted by the Sheet because of the centrality of Enem in this discussion. The query maintains only one item on stage assessment instruments.

Questioned, the folder says that it works to complement and expand the consultation approach, “adding new opinion questions and restructuring the theme of the Enem”. It did not explain, however, why the item was deleted.

On March 9, the government made the public consultation on the reform official, but only this week did it make the questionnaire available on the Participa + Brasil platform. It can be accessed here.

The Minister of Education, Camilo Santana, and President Lula have insisted that there will be no revoking of the reform, which would require Congressional action. The government argues that there are necessary adjustments to be made and that it will analyze the results of the consultation for final decisions.

Experts criticized the consultation model and claim that it is confusing as it addresses statements about different problems in the same item.

In it, the population can agree or disagree with statements about certain points of the reform. One of the questions, for example, talks about increasing to 70% the workload of the stage destined to common formation.

The consultation also has a question that points to the definition that disciplines such as sociology, philosophy, history, geography, chemistry and physics appear again as mandatory in legislation.

The implementation of the reform in the states has registered a series of problems, with complaints of missing classes in traditional disciplines with the new model. There are cases of content disconnected from the curriculum and lack of itinerary options for students.

The question removed from the consultation

Transformations in Secondary Education also required a restructuring of the National Secondary Education Examination – Enem. This is a very complex policy dimension because it directly impacts equity and justice in access to higher education. Considering that this is a national assessment, it is important that the contents, skills and competences assessed have a common reference. In this sense, it is important that:

• The Enem Assessment Matrix should be organized based on what is established in the Common National Curriculum Base for Basic General Training, since the training itineraries are highly heterogeneous.
• Experimental assessment processes of learning related to itineraries can be carried out within the scope of the Basic Education Assessment System – Saeb

The system allows participants to agree or disagree with these propositions. There is also a space for general comments.

The government intends to reach 100,000 students through the WhatsApp application. Consultations with the population, according to the MEC, is “one of the many other actions foreseen for dialogue with society”, in order to support decision-making about secondary education. “Regional public hearings, a cycle of webinars and seminars, online consultation, focus groups, workshops, research and seminars are also planned”.