The Minister of Education, Milton Ribeiro, said during a press conference last Sunday night (21) that he considers the Enem (National High School Exam) a success. The minister highlighted the abstention percentage that would be similar to other editions of the Exam.
First, the minister spoke of 24.5% abstention, later corrected by the president of INEP (National Institute of Educational Studies and Research Anísio Teixeira), Danilo Dupas, to 26% (74% presence). “I believe that Enem was a success, we had only 24.5% abstention, this is a significant number.”
According to Ribeiro, the lower number of subscribers in relation to previous years is not the most important fact, but the percentage of attendance. “A number very close to the last Enem [antes da pandemia]. Showing that the most important thing is not the number of entries, but who is going to take the test”, he said.
“Although we had a much smaller number of subscribers, some claiming [falta de] security, the MEC will never shy away from providing all the conditions for the return of classes to be possible. On the contrary, I made a statement on national television asking for the return to classes”.
The minister also commented on President Jair Bolsonaro’s phrase, when he said that the Exam would have “the face of the government”. “There was no interference. I reaffirm that it really has the face of the government, seriousness, transparency, academic matters, no diversion of resources, no leaks, this is the face of our government, seriousness and professionalism.”
Ribeiro went on to say that “I would never allow it, and I challenge anyone to say that I entered or had interference in setting up the race. When I see parliamentarians file suits, as they did, to prevent the realization of the Enem, I get more and more indignant with these people who do not have the slightest regard for millions of students who have prepared.”
According to him, there was not and will not be interference in the assembly of the test by any government, and that “the entire narrative of the media and the opposition, of a possible interference in the test, was out of place”.
“We had a safe Enem, no significant complications”.
Commenting on issues present in the Exam that would not please the government – according to Ribeiro, proof that there was no government interference – the minister commented only that “there are some issues that touch on some issues that, in a more conservative view, are more dear to ours. government. This shows in a very direct way the seriousness that this government treats Enem and treats education.”
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One of the most important parts of the Exam, this year’s essay had the theme “Invisibility and civil registration: guaranteeing access to citizenship in Brazil”. According to the minister, it had a much more social character and an agenda that “the left claims to be protective”. “We brought it up in a very direct way. It was our government that discovered the existence of the invisibles. We now find out when people were able to access Help [emergencial] that we distributed last year.”
Reference: CNN Brasil