Provão Paulista: student will be able to choose up to 9 colleges – 10/16/2023 – Education

In Provão Paulista, the new entrance exam that will be applied to all high school classes in public schools in São Paulo, each student will be able to choose up to nine undergraduate courses at different universities in the state. The number of registrants has not yet been released.

For 2024, a total of 15,369 vacancies will be offered, from colleges with lower demand to the most competitive in the country, such as medicine at USP and Unicamp.

The Provão Paulista is a serial entrance exam, that is, it will be applied in all grades of high school, and admission to university will depend on performance in the three years. As Provão is being implemented now, 2023 graduates will only take this year’s tests, on November 28th and 29th. In 2024, students will already have assessments for two years to be considered and, from 2025, for the entire course.

The intention is that from the 1st year the student feels encouraged to study to gain a place in public higher education. As registration is automatic for the entire São Paulo network and the tests are administered in schools on school days, there is the expectation of expanding access for students who would not otherwise take an entrance exam.

The weight of the grades that will make up the final result increases gradually over the years, so that students do not feel discouraged if they perform poorly in the 1st or 2nd year.

From 2025 onwards, when the evaluations of the three years are already considered, the weight will be 15% for the 1st year; 25% for the 2nd; and 60% for the 3rd (being, in this case, 40% for the multiple choice tests and 20% for the essay).

Although registration for the tests is automatic, 3rd year students will have to register on the Choices Portal, where they must list their options. There will be no restrictions, as is common in traditional entrance exams, for the selection of careers in different areas, according to the São Paulo State Department of Education.

This means that the student will be able, for example, to enroll in medicine at USP as their first option; engineering at Unicamp as 2nd; law at USP as 3rd, and so on.

The Choices Portal will go live on November 1st and, according to the government, will remain open until December 8th. A notice about Provão, published in the Official State Gazette on September 29, had set the closing date for November 15, but the secretariat stated that a new version will be published, extending the deadline.

On the day of application of the Provão, according to the notice, schools will operate with a typical scheme of traditional entrance exams, even though they will have to maintain regular classes for the other classes — in addition to the 3rd year tests on November 28th and 29th, they will be applied those of the 1st and 2nd year on November 30th and December 1st.

The entire system is being organized by Vunesp, the foundation that carries out the Unesp entrance exam. There will be opening and closing times for the gates, minimum and maximum time for the student to remain in the classroom and external inspectors. Students will be prohibited from using cell phones or any communication device and, to go to the bathroom, they will have to be accompanied to the door by a member of staff.

The teacher who administers the test must not be the same one who teaches the class. The tests will be printed and multiple choice. For the 3rd year, there will also be writing.

“The fact that the tests are administered on a school day, and not on the weekend, as is common in entrance exams, is very important,” he told Sheet the state Secretary of Education, Renato Feder. “We are talking about many students who would not sign up for entrance exams, take the Enem, and we are going to take the test for them,” he said.

It is planned to offer scholarships to socioeconomically vulnerable young people who enter colleges via Provão, but the government has not yet defined the values ​​or criteria. In addition, universities have committed to offering assistance programs, such as housing and food.

Feder says that the expectation is that Provão Paulista will be consolidated in the coming years as a selection process and that universities will expand the offer of places through this system. For this first edition, USP, Unesp and Unicamp offered around 13% of the total vacancies. In the long term, it is already being considered that this serial assessment could replace the entrance exams of each of the institutions in the case of candidates from public schools in São Paulo.

Currently, in addition to Provão, public school students can apply for vacancies at state universities in São Paulo through Enem and the entrance exam for each of them. If approved in more than one of the Provão options, as well as by Enem or the entrance exams, the student must choose only one course to enroll.

Institutions have quotas of 50% of vacancies for candidates from public schools, and vacancies for the Provão were defined within this percentage, taken from the portion allocated to Enem and/or each institution’s own entrance exam. Within this number, there will also be a reserve for black, brown and indigenous students.

At USP, Provão vacancies reduced entry via Enem. The distribution was homogeneous among all courses, around 15% of the total vacancies each, from the most to the least popular.

“USP wants to take advantage of Provão to become even more accessible to public school students, so there will be places in all courses, even the most sought after, such as medicine,” said Gustavo Mônaco, director of Fuvest and member of the Board University at USP.

“We usually visit public schools to encourage students to take Fuvest, but we realize that many of them are afraid to sign up. Therefore, Provão will play an important role in encouraging these students who were left out of the entrance exam.”

At Unesp, 10% of the total vacancies will be offered for the Provão Paulista in the case of the most popular courses and up to 30% for those with lower demand.

Pro-rector of undergraduate studies at Unesp, Célia Maria Giacheti said she believes that Provão will expand the connection between the university and public school students.

“Students will have more opportunities, throughout the three years of high school, to become interested in higher education,” he said. “This is a partnership that can expand access to public school students at universities and transform lives.”

At Unicamp, in the same way as at USP, part of the Enem vacancies went to the Provão, and there will be options in all courses.

There are 1.1 million high school students in the São Paulo state network, 435 thousand in the 1st year, 359 thousand in the 2nd and 356 thousand in the 3rd. Provão also extends to those enrolled in Etecs and municipal and federal public schools in São Paulo. Public school students from other states were able to register for Provão Paulista until October 6th — they will have to take the test in São Paulo.