Provão Paulista: Students will travel 9 hours by bus for the test – 11/28/2023 – Education

Students from the federal education network in São Paulo will have to travel by bus for up to nine hours to take the Provão Paulista, a serial entrance exam created this year by the Tarcísio de Freitas (Republicans) administration and which begins this Wednesday (29). Unlike what happens with candidates from state and municipal networks, the tests will not be administered at the school and in the city where they study, but in the capital.

This is the case of a group of students from Votuporanga, a municipality in the northwest of São Paulo, more than 500 kilometers from São Paulo. Even with the application of Provão Paulista in state schools in the city, the teenagers had to rent a bus and travel early in the morning to the capital to take the exam.

They will also have to cover the cost of accommodation, as the test will be held on two different days.

Created this year, Provão Paulista will be applied for the first time from this Wednesday (29) — the date was changed due to the strike by subway workers, railway workers and Sabesp employees. The serial entrance exam will select students from public schools to enter universities in São Paulo (USP, Unicamp and Unesp), Fatecs and Univesp.

The exam, a type of “state Enem”, was created with the aim of encouraging public school students to try for a place in higher education. The exam rules, however, can harm those who study in the federal education network — there are around 10,000 enrolled in high school at the IFSP (Federal Institute of São Paulo), more than 8,500 of them study on campuses located in the interior of the state .

The State Department of Education, under the command of Renato Feder, decided that only students from the state network and municipalities in São Paulo can take the tests in the cities where they study. The rest (public school students from other states and the federal network) must take the exam in the capital of São Paulo.

Around 1.2 million will take the Provão Paulista. The secretariat initially did not say how many of them study in federal units in São Paulo, but after the publication of this text, it stated that there are 1,501. The IFSP announced in October that there were 3,500 people registered for the test from its 36 campuses in the interior. Neither the ministry nor the institute explained the difference.

In a note, the ministry said that Provão has been widely publicized since its launch and that all participation rules were published in the Official Gazette. “The resolution makes it clear that students from other state, municipal and federal networks should take tests in the capital of the state of São Paulo”, says the ministry.

The secretariat also stated that Provão is a policy “designed to generate equity and focus on students from the state and municipal network of São Paulo, respecting the constitutional principle of federalism”.

On October 26, one month before the test took place, rector Silmário Batista dos Santos sent a letter to secretary Renato Feder requesting that IFSP students be authorized to take the tests in the municipality in which they reside or study.

According to the document, it was only after the approval of the registrations that the students learned that they would have to take the test in the city of São Paulo. The rector argued that many students at the institute could have difficulty traveling to the capital, especially those from poorer families. Feder did not respond to the letter.

Mother of a 16-year-old student from the IFSP campus in Votuporanga, Vanessa Ribeiro, 41, considers the situation disrespectful. “The test will be held in our city, in neighboring schools. Why didn’t they let our children take the test here? They are also public school students, they should have the same rights as others”, she says.

She and a group of parents helped the students charter a bus to São Paulo. Just for travel, they will have to pay around R$8,200, which will be divided between 40 students. As the tests for 1st and 2nd grade students will be held on the 1st (Friday) and 4th (Monday), they will also have to pay for at least three nights’ accommodation for the teenagers.

“Not to mention that we are dealing with teenagers, aged 15 and 16, who cannot travel alone, especially to a dangerous city like São Paulo. So, we are organizing ourselves to send three or four guardians with them. The cost will be high and many students ended up giving up because they were unable to do so”, says Vanessa.

The IFSP even made the gym available on the São Paulo campus, in Canindé, in the north of the capital, so that students from abroad have a place to sleep. However, as some of the students will have to spend the entire weekend in the city, many parents ended up giving up sending their children.

Some students also gave up traveling to take the test, as they thought they would arrive in the capital tired and would not perform well. “They will be traveling all night, sleeping on a bus. They won’t get a good night’s sleep, as they should have before an important test,” says Vanessa.

The Department of Education did not explain why it did not authorize IFSP students to take the test in the municipalities in which they study or why it did not include the institute’s units for the application of Provão.

Just like in state schools, teachers at municipal schools, Etecs (technical schools at the Paula Souza Center) and even, for example, at the USP Application School (which is not part of the São Paulo state network), received training to administer the exam .

Specialist in educational assessment, Ocimar Alavarse says that the rule violates the principle of equal conditions between candidates. Even though the rule is included in the test notice, he states, it can be questioned in court.

“The rule makes sense when we think about candidates from other states. Because the São Paulo government would increase the costs of the test by holding it outside of São Paulo. But, in this case, there is no change since the test will already take place in the city of these students. It was just a matter of sending more tests to these municipalities”, he says.

Prosecutor recommends that students from the federal network are not disqualified

Late this Tuesday afternoon (29), the Public Ministry of São Paulo sent a recommendation to the Tarcísio government to change the Provão Paulista rules to avoid further harm to students in the federal network.

The Public Ministry asks that 1st and 2nd high school students, enrolled in the IFSP in cities in the interior, are not disqualified from the assessment system if they are unable to take the test this year. According to the rules, students who do not take the test in any of the three years are automatically disqualified from applying for a place at universities.

For prosecutor Fernanda Cassiano, from Geduc (Special Education Action Group), the schedule and rules defined by the Tarcísio government would imply “the exclusion of several students from the evaluation system for the purpose of access to public universities in São Paulo, creating a situation of inequality between participants in the competition and, therefore, violating the State’s duty to guarantee access to the highest levels of education.”

The prosecutor gave the government 24 hours to respond whether it will comply with the recommendation. Otherwise, it says that the Prosecutor’s Office will “adopt all necessary legal measures in order to remedy the violations of fundamental rights portrayed, including through the filing of a public civil action, giving the present unequivocal knowledge to the appointed authorities regarding the illegalities verified” .

When contacted, the Department of Education did not inform, until 6:45 pm this Tuesday (28), whether it would comply with the recommendation of the Public Ministry.

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Get to know Provão Paulista

Serial entrance exams begin this Wednesday (29)

Dates and times

• 3rd year students: 29th (Wednesday), from 8am to 12pm, and 30th (Thursday), from 8am to 1pm
• 1st and 2nd year students: December 1st (Friday) and December 4th (Monday); 2nd grade students do it in the morning — from 8 am to 12 pm, on both days — and younger students, in 1st grade, in the afternoon, from 2 pm to 6 pm

What are the proofs

The tests for the three series will consist of 90 multiple-choice questions; Only 3rd year students will write the essay

First day:

• Languages ​​and their technologies: Portuguese language (20 questions) and English language (4 questions)
• Natural Sciences and their technologies: physics (8 questions), chemistry (8 questions) and biology (8 questions)

Second day:

• Mathematics and its technologies: mathematics (20 questions)
• Human sciences and their technologies: history (7 questions), geography (7 questions), sociology (4 questions) and philosophy (4 questions)
• Writing (dissertation-argumentative text) – only for the 3rd year

What to take

• official (and original) identity document with photo
• transparent ballpoint pen with black ink

What you CANNOT take

During the tests, it is expressly prohibited to use or carry a cell phone, pager or similar and/or watches, even if they are turned off. If the candidate is carrying any equipment
prohibited, you must, immediately after entering the room, place it in a sealed plastic packaging provided, placing it under your wallet

Division of vacancies offered

• USP (University of São Paulo): 1,500 places
• Unicamp (State University of Campinas): 325 places
• Unesp (Paulista State University): 934 vacancies
• Univesp (Virtual University of the State of São Paulo): 2,610 places
• Fatecs (Technology Colleges of the State of São Paulo): 10 thousand places (4,864 places for the 1st semester and 5,166 places for the 2nd semester of 2024)

In the selection process, each student will be able to select between 1 and 11 course options in three groups: the first from USP, Unicamp and Unesp, the second from Fatecs and the third from Univesp