Enem has questions about racism, dictatorship, Simone Biles and Israel; see themes

The first day of exams National High School Examination (Enem) 2023, held this Sunday, 5th, throughout Brazil, had issues that addressed since the perpetuation of racism in Brazilian society until deforestation in Amazon. Students also had to respond to items that mentioned the creation of the State of Israel, military dictatorshipgender equality, gymnast Simone Biles and protests from fans Fluminense against prejudiced chants.

This Sunday, in addition to the Languages It is Human Scienceswith 45 questions each, the Enem essay was also applied, which had as its theme the “Challenges in tackling the invisibility of care work carried out by women in Brazil”. The exams began to be administered at 1:30 pm and the deadline for completion is 7 pm. The second part of the test, with questions from Natural Sciences and Mathematics, takes place next Sunday.

In the evaluation of prep school teachers, the exam presented an average level, with questions loaded with interpretative and, at times, extensive texts. “It was a test with very progressive themes, which mainly addressed themes of social engagement”, says Caê Lavor, director of Assessments at SAS Educação. “Several themes associated with gender equity served as context for the test.”

According to him, a highlight of this year’s edition was that several statements used references considered current. “This made the language of some statements much more accessible, allowing this student to connect with the information. However, this required different skills from the student. He needed to have much more critical sense and much more social awareness”, says the professor.

One of the highlights of the test was a question about the mental health problems expressed by gymnast Simone Biles, who recently stood out at the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships after spending two years without competing. There was also a question that addressed Crooked Plough, writer’s book Itamar Vieira Jr. which was a sales success last year. In addition to items mentioning female writers Conceição Evaristoauthor of Olhos D’Água, It is Jarid Arraesthat wrote Broken Body.

“From the classic authors we find questions talking directly about Guimarães Rosa, questions with quotes about Machado de Assis and many interesting aspects related to contemporary trends”, says Marcelo Batista, Languages ​​professor at Bernoulli Educação. He states that, in this year’s test, grammatical topics were barely covered in the questions.

“The test addressed issues such as gender violence and racial violence, in addition to working on all the issues that involve the invisibilities of various identity groups”, says Natanael Soares de Barros, pedagogical coordinator at Poliedro. He mentions that one of the issues, for example, addresses the recognition of the work of the Italian-Brazilian architect Lina Bo Bardiwho designed the São Paulo Museum of Art (Masp).

Another question addressed the protest carried out by Fluminense fans, club that was champion of the Libertadores da América this Saturday, the 4th, against prejudiced chants aimed at rival fans. The word discussed is “mulambo”, a term of Angolan origin that means tattered clothes and is usually used to try to belittle someone.

“In the very reflection that the statement makes, there is a connotation of an elitist tradition to be able to curse, call, offend people in situations of slavery”, says Barros, who highlights the racist origins of the term. “On the other hand, there is a highlight for this group from Fluminense who, seeing the prejudiced connotation, want to mischaracterize this.”

One of the texts, in addition, recalled the Balfour Declaration, a 1917 letter in which the British committed to creating a territory for Israel and which can be considered a milestone that preceded the creation of the Israeli State. The topic is trending due to the Israel-Hamas Warbut, according to prep school teachers, it was treated objectively.

“It is an important document in the process that will lead to the construction of the State of Israel in the Palestine region. The Enem test is not a test that usually covers topics that are on the rise, but this time it did”, says João Jacomelli, History professor at Colégio Curso AZ, who also highlighted the return of the topic of the military dictatorship. “There were many text interpretation and interdisciplinary questions, and few content issues.”

Regarding the military regime, there were two questions present in the Human Sciences test, according to course teachers. The first related to the rural unionization process and another that addressed instruments of repression present in the period. Experts assessed the return of the topic to the largest examination in the country as positive.

“In the Philosophy test, the question that dealt with Paulo Freire and spoke of the formation of sociopolitical consciousness; the issue that dealt with existentialism with a text by Gabriel Garcia Marquez and another by Jean-Paul Sartre, approaching Foucault and thinking about the issues of judicial elaboration as a form of penalties”, says Breno Carlos da Silva, professor of Philosophy and Sociology at Escola SEB Lafaiete.

The professor also highlighted the presence of an item on the loss of Afghan women’s rights after the recent advance of the Telaban, extremist group that regained control of Afghanistan in 2021 and, since then, it has promoted an escalation of violence in the country. According to Silva, there were seven questions addressing the theme of gender violence in the test, four from Sociology and three interdisciplinary with History.

There was also space for items related to the Amazon. “The test included many questions about environmental issues, climate change and deforestation in the Amazon”, says Althieres Lima, Geography teacher at Escola SEB Lafaiete. “Of the issues that we already expected, there was one about hunger as Brazil appeared on the hunger map last year (…) I also highlight an issue about the rapprochement between Mercosur and the European Union, we already expected something about that. ”

Enem is only being taken in person this year. In March, the Ministry of Education decided to end the digital format of Enem, created by the government of Jair Bolsonaro (PL) in 2020 amid the pandemic. According to the MEC, few students have opted for computer assessment in recent years, which is expensive.

In the city of São Paulothe first day of the test is marked by the impacts of the storm and the lack of energy in part of the State and problems in allocating participants away from home. Some of the candidates woke up early to cross the city to the test site, with reports of journeys of up to 1h30 in the capital of São Paulo.

More of 3.9 million candidates participate this Sunday in Enem. The test is being administered in 132,000 classrooms in 1,750 municipalities across the country. On the 12th, participants will take the Natural Sciences (45 questions) and Mathematics (45 questions). The application will last 5 hours, counting from the room manager’s authorization for the start of the tests.