Enem 2026 has a record number of high school seniors registered; the challenge is getting them to show up
Automatic registration in public schools raised the number of senior-year students to 2.3 million; the exam is now part of the national basic education assessment system.
Translated from the Portuguese original by the Panorama newsroom. Read in Portuguese
Summary written by the Panorama newsroom from the sources listed below. Facts are attributed to the original publications.
More than 2.3 million students in their final year of high school are registered for Enem 2026 (Brazil's National High School Exam, used for university admission), which begins on Sunday (8th), the largest participation of graduating seniors since 2009, when the exam took on its current format, according to Folha de S.Paulo. They account for 47% of the more than 5.05 million registrants; until now, the highest share had been 38%, in 2022 and in 2025. The vast majority (87.3%) attend public schools.
The jump is due to automatic registration of graduating seniors in public schools, adopted by the Ministry of Education (MEC), and to the opening of 10,000 new test sites. The goal is to incorporate Enem into Saeb (the Basic Education Assessment System), which is administered every two years, allowing annual diagnoses of the quality of education. This year, the integration works as a trial before becoming mandatory in 2027.
Experts interviewed by the newspaper see the expansion as positive but warn that automatic registration alone does not guarantee attendance. Maria Inês Fini, creator of the first version of Enem, suggests that MEC and state education departments create incentives, such as some kind of bonus on school report cards. Andressa Pellanda, of the National Campaign for the Right to Education, considers the measure a step forward and says that a possible rise in absenteeism, which has hovered around 25%, would not invalidate it.
Education Minister Leonardo Barchini said he was confident of 70% participation among registered seniors. Last year, the average among public school seniors was 55%; for the exam to accurately assess school systems, attendance needs to reach at least 80%.
To encourage attendance, MEC will pay an additional R$200 from the Pé-de-Meia program (a federal stipend for public high school students) to seniors who take both days of the exam. In São Paulo, the state school system will for the first time offer free transportation on exam days to about 70,000 students in 500 municipalities, according to the administration of Governor Tarcísio de Freitas (of the Republicanos party).