Enem and factors such as the pandemic help explain the decline in the number of registrations for the selection exams of state institutions in São Paulo
It’s not just the National High School Examination (Nor) which saw a significant decline in subscribers. Traditional university entrance exams in São Paulo – how to fuvestfrom USPthe only one unicamp and that unesp – have also lost candidates in recent years.
One explanation is the federal test itself, which has begun to be used by these institutions in offering part of the vacancies. Other factors are the impacts of pandemic, which has led to learning deficits and discouragement for many young people, especially the poorest, who see trials as an unattainable challenge and decide not to try. The need to work makes the dream of a diploma even further away.
In the state universities of Campinas (Unicamp) and Paulista (Unesp), the total number of applicants is the lowest since 2012: 61.6 thousand and 67.5 thousand respectively. The total number of applicants at the University of São Paulo (USP) reached its lowest rate in 2021, with 110,700 applicants. This year the Fuvest, whose first phase will be held this Sunday 4, has recorded a slight increase, of almost 4,000 entrance exams, but still far from the 172,000 recorded in 2013.
“It’s a big puzzle, with several pieces,” evaluates Anglo Course coordinator Madson Molina. “It is difficult to talk about a pandemic and not also mention the economic scenario. There are many students who dropped out of higher education project because they had to work. the labor market”, he assesses, who also sees the impact of the age transition in the state, with the decrease in the number of adolescents.
The scope of the ENEM, another of the reasons highlighted by Molina, has made life easier and cheaper for candidates for the university entrance exam. Previously, it was necessary to take several exams, usually every few days, pay several tuition fees, and even travel to try one’s luck at more than one institution. Today, only with the grade of the federal exam it is possible to compete in the whole country.
“It turns out to be a strategy for candidates to devote themselves to a test of national scope and not waste time resources with regional tests, which they don’t know will work well,” emphasizes Mônaco, executive director of Fuvest.
high demand scares
Furthermore, the level of demand for tests in São Paulo scares Lívia Cabral, 17, who is aiming for a vacant position in medicine. She took Unicamp and found the test more difficult than in previous years – she now counts the hours for Fuvest. “The high difficulty doesn’t keep pace with our pandemic pace in distance learning (distance teaching)“, He says.
With internet access and her own computer, the young woman was still able to take her classes remotely during the pandemic. But according to the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), however, 28.2 million Brazilians aged 10 and over did not use the internet in 2021, including 3.6 million students.
Rayssa Campos, Lívia’s contemporary and colleague at the COC of Araraquara, in the hinterland of São Paulo, has dropped out of state universities and prefers to focus on Enem and private courses. “Medicine in these faculties (USP, Unicamp and Unesp) it’s inhumane, you basically have to pass the test,” opines the young woman, who says she can’t spend four or five years on a pre-college entrance exam.
“Fuvest is really difficult. It must be difficult, because the number of interested parties is large enough. If we do a very simple test, this has a complicated impact, which is a high number of draws, which makes everything even more complex ” , justifies Monaco , by Fuvest.
The director of Unicamp’s Permanent Commission for the Vestibular Entrance Examination (Comvest), José Alves, attributes much of the reduction in enrollments to covid and the long period of school closures. “This has led students to become more discouraged, it’s a demanding selection process. Many candidates may have felt unprepared to be able to face a marathon, like the one in the case of Unicamp”, he points out.
According to Alves, it was precisely the career of Medicine, one of the most contested in most of the selection processes, which was mainly responsible for the drop in enrollments this year. For entry in 2023, the candidate-to-post ratio for this course is 294. While high, this rate in the previous edition was 325 per vacancy, meaning there are 30 fewer students in contention for a professorship.
Contacted for a comment, Unesp said in a statement that “at first reading, the variation in the number of students enrolled in the entrance exam has multifactorial causes and must be understood in the educational context of the country as a whole”. Furthermore, says the university, “a very in-depth study on the subject and necessarily a longer period of time than that of the last three years, conditioned by the pandemic, is needed to understand if there are basic questions around the current demand of young people for university studies”.
And how to bring more students?
Despite the high demand for content and the possibility of taking the test close to home, Mariana Neri, 16, from Bahia, decided to travel to São Paulo, with a friend, with the aim of facing Fuvest. “Enem offers few places to enter the USP. I think that by taking the entrance exam I will have more chances, because there are more places”, she bets.
For 2023, USP will offer 11,147 vacancies. Of this total, 8,230 are earmarked for selection through Fuvest and 2,917 vacancies, through Enem. “However, we also go around and get to know the city,” jokes Mariana, who also plans to train as a doctor at the University of São Paulo.
According to him, the slight increase in this edition is the result of a series of new actions conducted by the foundation. Among these, we highlight a stronger presence on social networks and the visit of USP alumni of the public network to the schools they attend to encourage the enrollment of adolescents.
“We started this movement and intensified it, especially in the second half of September, because we noticed a very positive impact on the number of enrollments that entered the schools visited in the following days,” says Mônaco.
The vacancy abroad also brings students from São Paulo
If in most cases the low income of families is a decisive obstacle in the university path of poor young people, on the other hand the prospect of going abroad attracts students from private schools in São Paulo.
Lucas Faro, 17, is one of them. A student at Pentagon College, the young man also enrolled at Fuvest, but “just to do it”, in his words. His goal is to be accepted into a university in the United States or Canada, where he intends to major in Economics and Political Science. To devote himself to his projects abroad – the admission process also includes interviews and sending letters – he gave up the Unicamp and Unesp tests.
Enem has also become a gateway to higher education institutions abroad. Through agreements with the Brazilian government, 51 Portuguese educational institutions accept the test in the admission process, including the universities of Coimbra, Porto and Lisbon.
The deputy director of Pedagogical Innovations at the Pentagon, Bruno Alvarez, points out that there is still a movement to stay in São Paulo, but opt for a higher institution in the private network. Among the names most cited by specialists are the faculties of Einstein, FGV, Insper and ESPM. “I’ve heard many people prefer a private university in the capital to Unicamp, Unesp or even USP in Ribeirão Preto,” he says.
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Source: Terra
Camila Luna is a writer at Gossipify, where she covers the latest movies and television series. With a passion for all things entertainment, Camila brings her unique perspective to her writing and offers readers an inside look at the industry. Camila is a graduate from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) with a degree in English and is also a avid movie watcher.
