27/05/2024

'Schools that participate in OBMEP perform better on the ENEM exam'

Cerimônia Nacional de Premiação da OBMEP

Schools with high participation rates in OBMEP (Brazilian Public School Mathematics Olympiad) concentrate students with better results in Enem (National High School Exam), according to research, released this Monday (27), by Interdisciplinarity and Evidence in the Educational Debate (Iede) with technical support from IMPA and the Laboratory of Studies and Research in Higher Education of the University of São Paulo (Lepes/USP). Agência Brasil reported on the study.

According to the research, the average score on the ENEM math exam, considering all institutions where students won medals in the OBMEP, was 516.1. Among those that did not participate or were not awarded, the average drops to 488.5.

“The high participation criterion included schools where at least 65% of the classified students participated in the second phase. In these institutions, it was found that learning mathematics benefits not only students who excel in the subject, but the entire class,” the article highlights. For Ernesto Faria, researcher and executive director of Iede, “the Mathematics Olympiad will have a greater impact on all students if it generates more mobilization.”

When analyzing a specific segment—a group of schools that had students winning awards in the OBMEP (Brazilian Mathematical Olympiad for Public Schools), but which did not register high participation—the internal inequality is striking. "In these cases, despite an increase in average ENEM (National High School Exam) scores, a greater discrepancy is also observed between the students' grades," the article points out.

“If the Mathematics Olympiad doesn’t generate a mobilizing effect in schools, it may end up helping only a certain profile of students. And then, the potential to contribute to the improvement of students who would be registering lower performance is lost,” Faria assesses in the report.

The study also evaluated performance in the Basic Education Assessment System (Saeb), applied every two years by the Ministry of Education since 1990. According to the data collected, schools with students who win medals in the OBMEP (Brazilian Mathematical Olympiad for Public Schools) registered an average of 270.3 points in the Saeb for elementary school and 288.8 for high school. Those that did not participate or did not have award-winning students presented averages of 240.2 and 269.8, respectively.

The research also had the support of B3 Social, a non-profit organization. The full article is available at this link . Outlets such as “O Povo” and “Isto é” also reproduced the report.

Created in 2005 to promote mathematics education in Brazil, the first phase of the 19th edition of OBMEP takes place on June Wednesdays. This year, the Olympiad broke two new records: 56,513 schools registered from 99.9% of the country's municipalities. The competition will bring together more than 18 million students.