The former president of Inep Luiz Cláudio Costa classified as serious the new episode of similarity between the questions of Enem 2025 and the material of medical students Edcley Teixeira. The exam took place this Sunday (7) in three towns in Pará.
Former rector of the UFV (Federal University of Viçosa) and president of Inep, an organization linked to the MEC (Ministry of Education), between 2012 and 2014, Costa said that if there had been early access to the questions, the equality of the review would have been compromised, as it would have given an unfair advantage to those who have already had contact with the content.
Less than a month after the scandal of the anticipation of the Enem questions, the students’ handouts again presented at least five questions very similar to those applied during the second day of the Grand Belém tests. The situation worsened because, after the first case, the material circulated on social networks, allowing candidates from Pará to have access to the content before applying.
“This arouses attention, because it is a recurring fact with this source (…) It is necessary to investigate everything in detail to preserve the credibility of the exam. The institute is of high quality, but it is necessary to guarantee the peace of mind of the students,” Costa told Folha. According to him, Inep must expand the bank of articles to reduce the risks of repetition.
The current president of Inep, Manuel Palaciostold Folha that there was no evidence of a leak and that the result of the request in Pará would be maintained. He denied that the distribution of the documents benefited the candidates and said that the Enem score is calculated using a psychometric model that takes into account all responses, so that even similar items do not change the overall performance.
According to Palacios, the coincidences observed in Edcley Teixeira’s documents are the result of partial memorization of questions from pre-tests taken in previous years. “There was no leak. There was an attempt to retrieve items from memory, which may generate similarities, but does not affect the validity of the test,” he said.
When contacted, the student indicated that the similarity between his notebooks and the questions stems from the “consolidated identity” of the exam, and not from irregular access to the content.
According to him, his hardware reproduces reference matrix models through reverse engineering and logic and computational tools. He declared that the coincidence does not constitute an irregularity and defended that Inep reviews the cancellation of the articles.
Palacios said many coincidences involve typical high school tasks, such as interpreting graphs and calculating proportions. “In many cases it is the task that is similar, not the object. These are common problems in the areas assessed,” he said.
Costa defended the pre-test, but said the problem arose when pre-tested items were returned for examination in the same year. “It appears that the pre-test questions are being used in the same year as the application. This shows that there is a need to significantly expand the question bank.”
Palacios indicated that, according to information from his team, the elements used were pre-tested in 2023 and 2024, as part of a set that covers around ten years of pre-tests. The oldest, in this edition, dates from 2013.
He also emphasized that the pre-test is not a rehearsal for the final test, but a process that calibrates the elements that can or cannot be integrated into the Enem. “Without prior testing, it is not possible to produce comparable results between editions.”
The president of Inep declared that the main challenge today is operational. According to him, carrying out pre-test series comprising around 800 questions faces difficulties due to the need to bring together a large number of students. “It is necessary to mobilize around 15,000 students at each stage, and many are missing. So incentives for participation must be created.”
Use of artificial intelligence
Costa also defended the use of technology to strengthen the production and safety of items and said that artificial intelligence can support both creation and testing, under human supervision.
In a previous interview with Folha, the former president of Inep, Maria Helena Castro, also stressed that in the medium and long term, AI can be a way to avoid raising questions.
Palacios indicated that Inep is studying the use of AI to simulate responses, but clarified that the process depends above all on the participation of students, because they are the ones who allow the machine to be calibrated.
According to him, simulations only make sense when the tool learns from the real behavior of participants. “You combine humans with machines,” he said. The president added that even with advances in technology, human participation should not disappear. “Students remain essential to the process. »
Edcley Teixeira, medical student at UFC (Federal University of Ceará), gained notoriety after anticipating the questions of Enem 2025 as well as the 2023 and 2024 editions. He denies any leak and claims to base his predictions on the official pre-test standards used by Inep to calibrate the elements.
At Folha de S.Paulo, the student attributed his ability to anticipate to the experience accumulated in 13 participations in Enem and said that he applied an “algorithmic perception method”, based on reading reviews and observing linguistic patterns in the questions.
The MEC had already canceled three questions from Enem 2025 and contacted the federal police after the broadcast of videos in which the student showed questions similar to those applied during the November national exam.
The candidacy for Pará mobilized approximately 95 thousand candidates in Belém, Ananindeua and Marituba, in an examination postponed due to COP30. An edition of Enem aimed at the population deprived of liberty is planned for this month.
About The Author
