Two actions that took place this week marked another important step towards greater inclusion of indigenous students in undergraduate courses at Unicamp. In addition to a workshop promoted this Friday (4/5) by the Permanent Commission for Entrance Exams (Comvest), on the ten-year experience of the Federal University of São Carlos (UFsCar) in applying an indigenous entrance exam, the ordinance was signed which creates the Working Group “Indigenous Inclusion at Unicamp”. The GT, with representation of students, professors and researchers from Unicamp, should propose strategies for welcoming and monitoring indigenous students who will enter from this year onwards, through Unicamp's first indigenous entrance exam.
The visit of two representatives from UFsCar who held the “Indigenous Entrance Exam” workshop took place at Comvest's headquarters and aimed to exchange experiences with this university, which will be Unicamp's partner university in its first specific entrance exam for indigenous populations. The event was attended by the dean of undergraduate studies at Unicamp, Eliana Amaral, coordinators from Comvest and professors from Unicamp who have research involving topics related to indigenous peoples.
At the invitation of Comvest's executive coordination, Tainá Veloso Justo - from the UFsCar undergraduate admissions coordinator and Thaís Palomino - from the ethnic-racial relations coordinator of the UFsCar Secretariat for Affirmative Action, Diversity and Equity, presented an overview of ten years and eleven indigenous entrance exams administered by the University. Based on the data, they addressed the rich experience both in relation to the entry of indigenous peoples into UFsCar, as well as their permanence and relationship with the university community.
Thaís, who is also a pedagogue and works directly to support indigenous students, spoke about the importance of constant dialogue. “We have 42 different indigenous peoples and work and integration would not be possible without a lot of dialogue, in the face of such a diverse universe. That’s the basis: building, reviewing and having a very open relationship,” she explained.
New knowledge
The UFsCar representative defended the need to break the idea that only universities teach. “The students have been teaching the university a lot. It is not just the university that holds knowledge. This is a two-way street, as we learn more and more not only to welcome, but also to value the knowledge of these indigenous peoples. They also produce science, which is also based on observation. Their records, for example, have a different marking, but like us, they also record the science produced in the communities. Furthermore, the university is having the opportunity to form new fields of research. We already have studies of indigenous languages, which would not happen if we did not have indigenous people at UFsCar. An example is the health actions in indigenous lands, which are enabling our researchers in this area to have more complete training consistent with the Brazilian reality”, reported Thaís.
Tainá Veloso Justo, from the admissions coordinator, said that the courses most sought after by indigenous students at UFsCar are mainly those in the areas of education and health, considered by them to be more strategic, as they can apply knowledge in the communities. “If you have an indigenous student trained in a health field, you have a professional with expanded knowledge, who knows both languages and can work in two different ways,” said Tainá.
Unicamp Indigenous Entrance Exam
Comvest will publish, in June, the notice with complete information about the Indigenous Vestibular process. Registration will take place between August 15th and September 14th, online, and the test will be administered on December 2nd, in five cities across the country.
Comvest's executive coordinator, José Alves de Freitas Neto, said that, in relation to the UFsCar experience, Unicamp will expand the test base beyond Recife (PE) and Manaus (AM), which are currently the two test sites application of the indigenous entrance exams at the University of São Carlos. Unicamp will also take the tests to the cities of São Gabriel da Cachoeira (AM), where the majority of the State's indigenous population is located; Campinas and Dourado (MS).
The partnership with UFsCar, according to the coordinator, consists of creating a unified entrance exam, with a joint process up to the call stage, which will be simultaneous. “This dynamic aims to facilitate the process for indigenous students, who will take a single test, prepared by Unicamp, and will be able to choose between the different course options at both universities,” he stated. “The partnership brings us important previous experience, which allows us to take advantage of this knowledge and offer the best possible process, both when preparing the test and during the academic career of these students at Unicamp”, added Freitas Neto.
