The Minister of Education, Camilo Santana, said, in an interview with TV Educativa do Ceará, this Tuesday (18), that the cancellation of three questions from the National High School Exam (Enem) occurred as a precaution and to maintain fairness in the competition. The possible question leak will be investigated by the Federal Police. 
According to the minister, Enem has a bank of questions and the items are used in a pre-test with different groups of students. “According to the information I have, a person who participated in this pre-test disclosed and made this speech on a live broadcast.”
The National Institute of Educational Studies and Research Anísio Teixeira (Inep), earlier, reported that it had reports of a possible anticipation of issues similar to those of Enem.
Camilo Santana expressed, still in the interview with TVE in Ceará, that Enem was a success and that candidates and their families should be calm about the exam.
“What happened was that there was noise on social media. And I ordered Inep, immediately, when I became aware, to investigate and take the appropriate measures”, said the minister.
Santana highlighted that the annulment takes into account ensuring that no candidate would be harmed. “Inep canceled it, but all the other 87 items and also the wording remain valid.”
Investigations into possible fraud in Enem are the responsibility of the Federal Police, because the evidence is a federal service, in the public interest. Enem is coordinated by Inep, a federal agency linked to the Ministry of Education (MEC).
Pre-test
To prepare and correct the Enem, Inep adopts a statistical model called Item Response Theory (TRI). The methodology uses a set of mathematical models and considers the particularities of each question. Therefore, as highlighted by the MEC, the items are pre-tested with groups of students before taking part in the test. This would be necessary to “calibrate” the level of difficulty of each question that makes up the exam.
Therefore, those who participate in pre-tests have contact with multiple choice questions that may be part of the Enem tests in some of its editions. All items approved in the pre-tests become part of the National Item Bank, which brings together the questions to be used to prepare the exam editions.
Inep informs that it promotes several strategies to calibrate the questions that make up the National Item Bank and can be used in preparing the Enem tests.
