Each of those 17,289 missing students represents a potential path to higher education that did not open
Each year, Brazil's ENEM exam functions as a great sorting — a single Sunday that can redirect the arc of a young person's life toward university or away from it. On November 13th, 2022, nearly 2.5 million students across the country sat for that exam, but in Alagoas, a northeastern state where structural disadvantage runs deep, more than 17,000 registered students never arrived. Their absence is not merely statistical; it is a quiet signal that the distance between opportunity and access remains unequal in ways that numbers alone cannot fully explain.
- Brazil's most consequential exam drew 73.3% of its 3.4 million registered students nationally — a respectable turnout that nonetheless leaves nearly one million young people without a score.
- Alagoas stood apart: a 27.6% absence rate, nearly four points above the national average, suggests that something beyond individual choice is keeping students away from testing centers.
- Each of the 17,289 missing students in Alagoas now faces a closed door to SISU public university placements, ProUni scholarships, and FIES financing — programs that depend entirely on having a score.
- The essay prompt itself — asking students to reflect on the challenges of valuing traditional communities in Brazil — lands with an uncomfortable irony when those very communities are disproportionately absent from the room.
- A second exam phase on November 20th covering science and mathematics awaits those who did show up, but for Alagoas's absentees, the academic year's most important threshold has already passed.
On November 13th, 2022, Brazil administered the first day of its ENEM — the national exam that serves as the primary gateway to higher education — with 2.49 million students sitting for tests in language arts, humanities, and an essay. The essay prompt asked students to grapple with a deeply Brazilian question: what are the challenges in valuing traditional communities and peoples in the country?
Nationally, 73.3% of registered students participated, split between 2.458 million taking paper exams and over 32,000 completing a digital version. But the state of Alagoas, in Brazil's northeast, told a different story. Of 62,723 registered students, only 45,434 entered a testing center — leaving 17,289 absent and an absenteeism rate of 27.6%, nearly four percentage points above the national figure.
The ENEM's stakes are considerable. Scores determine placement through SISU into public universities, unlock scholarships via ProUni at private institutions, and enable student financing through FIES. Even some Portuguese universities accept Brazilian ENEM results. For the students who did not appear in Alagoas, those pathways are now closed for this cycle.
The gap in Alagoas is not easily explained by indifference. Transportation costs, work obligations, family pressures, and uneven access to information about the exam's importance all shape who walks through the testing center door and who does not. The second exam day, covering science and mathematics, is scheduled for November 20th — but for more than 17,000 young people in one of Brazil's most economically vulnerable states, the window has already closed.
On Sunday, November 13th, Brazil's national university entrance exam unfolded across thousands of testing centers. Nearly 2.5 million students showed up to take the Enem—the National Exam of Secondary Education—a test that has become the primary gateway to higher education in the country. That attendance figure, 73.3 percent of the roughly 3.4 million who had registered, broke down into 2.458 million taking the exam on paper and 32,376 on computers. The first day asked students to work through language arts, humanities, and an essay. The prompt for that essay was direct: what are the challenges in valuing traditional communities and peoples in Brazil?
But the numbers tell an uneven story. In the state of Alagoas, in Brazil's northeast, the picture looked different. Of the 62,723 students registered there, only 45,434 actually walked into a testing center. That left 17,289 absent—27.6 percent of those who had signed up. The absence rate in Alagoas ran nearly four percentage points higher than the national average, a gap large enough to suggest something systemic was at work.
The Enem has been a fixture of Brazilian education for more than two decades. It measures how well students have absorbed the material of their secondary schooling, but its real power lies in what comes after: the test scores open doors. The federal government's Unified Selection System, known as Sisu, uses Enem results to place students in public universities. The For All University Program, or ProUni, uses the scores to award scholarships at private institutions. The Student Financing Fund, Fies, relies on them too. Private universities and public ones alike have adopted the Enem as their primary or supplementary admissions tool. Even some Portuguese universities with agreements in place accept Brazilian Enem scores, offering a pathway for students who want to study abroad.
The disparity in Alagoas raises a question that sits beneath the surface of these numbers: who gets left behind? A 27.6 percent absence rate is not random. It reflects barriers—transportation costs, work obligations, family circumstances, or simple lack of information about the exam's importance. Each of those 17,289 missing students represents a potential path to higher education that did not open on that Sunday morning.
The exam continues. The second day, scheduled for November 20th, will test science and mathematics. The Inep, the federal institute that administers the exam, promised to release answer keys by November 23rd. But for those who did not show up in Alagoas, the second day will not matter. They will have already missed their chance at this year's entrance to the universities that shape Brazil's professional class. The results of this exam—or the absence of them—will ripple through the lives of hundreds of thousands of young people, determining which doors open and which remain closed.
Notable Quotes
The Enem has become one of the primary gateways to higher education in Brazil over more than two decades— Inep (National Institute of Educational Studies and Research)
The Hearth Conversation Another angle on the story
Why does Alagoas stand out so sharply in these numbers? Is it just a state that struggles more with attendance across the board?
It's hard to say without more data, but a 27.6 percent absence rate when the national average is 26.7 percent suggests something specific is happening there. It could be infrastructure—fewer testing centers, longer distances to travel. It could be economic. It could be that fewer students in Alagoas know how important this exam actually is.
But the Enem has been around for over twenty years. Shouldn't everyone know by now that it's the main way into university?
You'd think so. But knowledge and access are different things. A student might know the exam exists and still not be able to afford the bus fare to get there, or might have to work that Sunday, or might not have a parent who can explain why it matters.
So these 17,289 absences in Alagoas—are they failures on the students' part, or failures of the system?
Both, probably. But the system failure is the one we can actually fix. A student who doesn't show up because they had to work is a symptom of a system that hasn't made room for them.
What happens to those students now? Can they take the exam next year?
Yes, they can register again. But they've lost a year. In Brazil, the Enem is often your only shot at getting into a public university that year. Missing it means waiting twelve months, and a lot can change in that time—a student might drop out, might need to work full-time, might lose momentum.
So this one Sunday morning in November could reshape the lives of thousands of people.
Exactly. And it already has.