The first day of the National High School Exam (Enem) 2025 test had 27% abstention, maintaining a rate similar to that of the last year (26.6%). The percentage is lower than in 2023 (28.1%) and 2022 (28.3%). 
“Abstention maintained the average and increased the number of participants,” said the Minister of Education, Camilo Santana, on Sunday night (9).
More than 4.8 million candidates were eligible to participate in Enem. He said that there were 3,240 participants eliminated for different irregularities. “Everything was peaceful,” he highlighted.
The minister mentioned that candidates were eliminated if they did not follow the inspectors’ instructions, used printed materials, were absent from their seats outside of permitted hours, carried electronic equipment or left the test site carrying the question booklet before 30 minutes of the end of the application.
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The minister informed that the official answer sheet for the first day of the test should be released next Thursday (13). Camilo Santana recalled that the exam was applied in 1,805 municipalities and involved more than 300 thousand support people.
This Sunday, the exam asked multiple choice questions from the following areas of knowledge: Portuguese language; literature; foreign language (English or Spanish); history; geography; philosophy and sociology, arts, physical education and information and communication technologies. There were 90 questions in addition to the essay.
The minister defended the topic of the essay, on the perspectives on aging in Brazilian society.
“I thought it was a very current topic and that it requires all of us Brazilians to look very carefully, because the country has started to invert its age curve, increasing the number of elderly people”.
According to teachers interviewed by Brazil Agencythe theme of the Enem essay, helped promote current debates such as rights violations and ageism, which is prejudice against a person because of their age.
Minister of Education, Camilo Santana, and president of Inep, Maunel Palácios, take stock of the first day of Enem 2025. Photo: Print/Youtube from MEC.
“Beautiful test”
The president of the National Institute of Educational Studies and Research Anísio Teixeira (Inep), Manuel Palácios, said the test was “beautiful”, “wonderful”.
“Working with the skills and knowledge provided in our curricular references, it is a great topic for us to discuss in the coming days. It is the assessment that Enem represents of the completion of basic education in the country”, he said.
The Minister of Education highlighted that the exam reapplication cases have a set date: December 16th and 17th. Among the students who will have this opportunity are students from cities in Paraná victims of the tornado.
Second day
The second day of the test will be next Sunday (16), when natural science and mathematics content will be covered.
In addition to evaluating teaching in schools, Enem is the main gateway to universities, especially public ones. The note can be used by students in the Unified Selection System (Sisu), aimed at public institutions, and in the University for All Program (Prouni) and the Student Financing Fund (Fies), both aimed at private institutions.
