With less than a week to go before the first test of the National High School Examination (Enem) 2021, the former president of the National Institute of Educational Studies and Research Anísio Teixeira (Inep), Maria Inês Fini, told CNN this Monday (15) that Brazilian society “cannot lose Enem and much less weaken the Institute”. Inep, linked to the Ministry of Education (MEC), is responsible for managing the test.
“It is essential that you understand that Inep produces statistics. How do you make the policy in MEC without this data? With national exams, such as Enem, we offer subsidies for monitoring the quality of educational services”, he told CNN.
According to her, it is not about the Institute having “autonomy” in relation to the Ministry of Education, but rather “managers who know the management mechanisms of Inep’s teams and structures”.
“How do you put people outside these statistics and evaluation culture at Inep in the coordination position? It could only go wrong”, said the former president of Inep.
Maria Inês’ assessment comes after president Jair Bolsonaro’s (non-party) statement, this Monday afternoon (15), saying that Enem “begins to have the face of the government”.
Bolsonaro responded about an institutional crisis at Inep. In recent weeks, dozens of Inep professionals have resigned with the allegation that there was interference in the body, which is responsible for carrying out the exam.
“The president will have to explain the statement. Bolsonaro has to have a foundation to say that Enem has the face of the government. He is publicly claiming that there was interference,” said the former president of Inep.
She, however, assured that the exam was “very well prepared” and that there was no what she called an “invasion” of the test item bank.
“There was no raid on the item bank to add new items. What happened, and this has to be duly clarified, were successive attempts to remove issues. The exam is based on a huge, widely publicized framework of content assessed on the exam. The simple removal of items should not bother students, because whoever has prepared for the most will certainly do well in the least”, he pointed out.
“What we have to do is guarantee peace of mind, the exam was very well prepared. There is a whole scheme set up in 24 years of Enem that cannot be improvised. We have to have prepared people”.
Enem 2021 will be held on November 21st and 28th. There will be two modalities: print and digital — this is the second year of application of the digital modality of the exam. In this edition, both versions will be on the same dates. The test items and the essay theme will be the same in both models.
The Education Committee of the Chamber of Deputies decides on Tuesday (16) whether to summon the Minister of Education, Milton Ribeiro, to provide clarification on Enem, government interference in the test and the stampede of Inep servers, responsible for taking care of of the Enem and Enade tests.
The president of the Commission, Deputy Professor Dorinha (DEM-TO), told the CNN that the declaration is “very serious”, and that, therefore, he understands that the request to summon Milton Ribeiro to provide clarifications will be approved. The meeting is scheduled for 2 pm this Tuesday.
President of the Mixed Parliamentary Education Front, Deputy Professor Israel (PV-DF) used Twitter to criticize the president’s statement in Dubai.
“Bolsonaro confessed, with all letters, that the government really interfered in Enem’s issues, as reported by Inep’s employees. Enem cannot belong to any government, it is a State policy and must be respected as such”, he assessed.
Reference: CNN Brasil
