Volun. Teac. VI - Enem - part III -

            In this third part I would like to tell a little about Enem` history and also more commentaries about this important issue.To begin with, Enem was created in 1998, at first it was just to assess the secondary level, but since the beginning, it was conceived to be an option to the tradicional entrance exam, called ¨vestibular¨. In 1998 there were only 157,221 inscriptions and in 2001 the number already had risen to 1,624,131, but the largest increase was in 2004 to 2005 when there were respectively 1,552,316 and 3,004,491. This happened due Enem to become the exam required to applicants to qualify for a prouni schoolarship, since then the number of applicants have increase steadily, in 2008 was around 4 millions and 2010 around 4,6 millions. What show us the growing interest in Enem and higher education.

           One doubt that it is happening every year and I think should be unveiled is why there are so many absent each year. This year the absent rate reached 27% . Past year was around 38%, but as everybody knows, the exam past year was postponed and many universities canceled its use.

           Would be because the huge number of inscriptions and the small number of places in public universities that use the enem, around 95,000. Maybe some persons less prepared gave up, thinking in the tough competition. I do not know, but would be good a research about this phenomenon to discover why this is happening and how to lower this excessive number of quitters.

           Anyway, this show us the huge number of persons wishing to study and staying excluded from the public education system. The private system has done a great benefit for brazil`s society, possibiliting millions to make their dreams come true, and nowadays is bigger than public system. But,  I am not saying that the public system is better than private system, however, everybody should always watch for their real learning, the education can not trasform into commerce, can not be only about profits and diplomas. Of course, the student`s learning more depend on their commitment and hard work, moreover,the government assessment should be taken into account and the private universities that are unqualified to work, should be closed. 

           The prouni did not solve all the problems, because there is not enough places in some professions in the private universities, for example, in medical and engineering school, the demand for places is much higher than the supply for both, public and private universities.

Vol. Teac. VI - Enem - Part II

        In the former post, I said that we should try to strengthen and to improve the ENEM and now I would like to give some reasons for that. The ENEM need to be taken seriously by everybody.

        ENEM has done many persons that quitted school many years ago, go back to school, maybe because it is a multiple choice test with current question, where prevail the good interpretation of text and a advanced writing, and also it is a requirement test for prouni, when to achieve only 40% is enough to qualify the applicant for the public schoolarship, besides come from a poor family. Let me to tell the truth, it is not difficult to reach 40%. After all, one of the reasons that I did this blog is to help the people to be aware about the changes that they can reach through investment in education, and sometimes the only investment required is their hardwork, their commitment in their studies. The people has the right to good education, fight for this.  The fact is, a lot of older persons are having a second chance in their lives, what is very good, because for some reason these persons can not study earlier in their lives, so give them another opportunity or in some cases the only and late opportunity, is very important and fair. This year there was almost 700.000 applicants older than 30 years old. And the numbers of application form from persons that already has the secondary level has increased steadily, reaching this year 58% from all.

        Equally important is ENEM to be adopted by many public universities, it is a good way to democratize the access and broaden the range of applicants.

       The education should have always inclusionary policies. There is only benefits from that.

Vol. Teac. - VI - Enem

       Last weekend, there was ENEM and for now, everybody that did the exam, already would have known their grades, but unfortunately, again, there were problems, but despite the initial uncertainty, on friday, seems that all the problems was resolved, how was supposed to be, only the applicants, those that had problems will have to do another exam. We have to consider the great majority that have not any trouble at all. We, all in the education system, have try to strengthen this good idea: A national exam, to assess the secondary level and at the same time being a admissional exam to the public universities or to get public scholarship. We have to try rise its credibility, after two years a row of problems, perhaps it is being damaged. So, I think, it is just my humble opinion, we all, students, teachers, parents, should demand more commitment from all the persons invloved in the ENEM application, since when it is made, until when the exam is being done in the classroom, and after during the corrections. I think this is the general feeling.

       Furthermore, the exam should be applied more often, at least two or three times a year, giving the students more chances and lower their stress because only one chance a year.

       Moeover, in order to achieve total credibility, the transparency and monitoring during its application should be always a concern, to assure total fairness in the results.

      In my humble opinion, the theory of answer item (TRI), it is very complicated, I would like to know if will be publicize the value of each answer from each question, so all the students can know their grades by themselves, if not , I think, one question corrected, one point, would be easiest to understand.

      About the composition, would be very good, if the students could received their composition at home, with their grades and all the  mistakes explained.

      If the INEP to think, it is necessary charge more to implement all this improvements, I think it is worth the price. The education and all its assessment is very important in the life of the country and of the students.

    

Vol. Teac. V - Comm. of: A Short Histoty of the World

          In this post, I would like to do some commentaries about the book "A short history of the world." Written by H.G. Wells (1866-1946), who was a famous writer, author of many books, including, the very famous, "The time machine"(1895) and "The island of Dr.moreau"(1896).  Besides, he was a journalist and historian. By the way, this book is entirely available in internet, search for it in goggle and you will can read another history about a great change through investment in research and education. The chapter LXIII, and the title is: European aggression in Asia and the rise of Japan.
           Brazil has also a good history about great improvements through investment in reseach. In the 1973, was created Embrapa, it is a public company, to develop Brazil`s agriculture sector. At first, many brazilians scientists went to USA and brought back the cutting-edge agrotech from that time, but to create the agrotech for our conditions, take us too many years of our own reseach. Since then, Embrapa has made many real progress, including, transforming what was once regarded a unfit land for farming into a productive land, its main achievement has been to turn the cerrado green.
          If you want to read more about this history, you can search in www.economist.com, and look for the report with the title of,  "The miracle of the cerrado."  Published in August,26th 2010.