Enem 2026 Opens First Day With 5.05 Million Confirmed Candidates

Overview

• The first day of the two‑weekend exam began on Sunday with 5,051,345 confirmed registrations and tests running from 13:30 to 19:00 Brasília time.
• Inep and the Education Ministry set uniform gate hours (12:00–13:00 Brasília time), strict item rules and fixed session lengths that shape who can enter and how long candidates may stay.
• Policy changes this year—automatic enrollment of public high‑school third‑year students and broad fee exemptions that covered about 3.4 million candidates—boosted confirmed participation versus 2025.
• Officials, including President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, visited Inep’s monitoring room as private schools and publishers released extraofficial answer keys and Inep said official gabaritos and attendance tallies will be posted after the second day.
• Participation is the largest since 2020 but still well below the 2014 peak, and the scores this year will be used for Sisu, Prouni, Fies and, for the first time, integrated into the Saeb national assessment.