Black architect ranked first overall at BNDES defends quota in public exams

Brazil Agency Architect Tiago Coutinho da Silva was surprised on March 21st while attending the launch ceremony of the National Bank for Economic and Social Development (BNDES) call for proposals to select Black professionals to create an open-air museum in Little Africa – a region of Rio de Janeiro that preserves the memory of the arrival of enslaved Africans in Brazil.

In the middle of the event, sitting in the audience next to his parents and wife, he heard BNDES's Director of People, Management and Operations, Helena Tenório, announce his name to go on stage.

“The first place in the quotas was the first place overall in the competition,” revealed the director.

Helena Tenório was referring to the highly competitive selection process that the public development bank held last October, after a 12-year hiatus without such selections. Competing for one of the two architect positions, Coutinho, who had opted to apply for the racial quota positions, came in first place in the general competition for his career and also achieved the highest score among all careers. 

Tiago Coutinho shared the stage with three Black ministers: Anielle Franco, Minister of Racial Equality; Macaé Evaristo, Minister of Human Rights and Citizenship; and Margareth Menezes, Minister of Culture.

"I wasn't prepared. It's much easier to take a test," he joked about the situation, before saying that he felt like "an example of representation and a source of pride and inspiration for others."

historical reparation

The architect is 29 years old and lives in Niterói, a city in the metropolitan region of Rio de Janeiro. In a conversation with Agência Brasil, he says that passing the competitive exam is the result of a lot of dedication. "Dedication over several years now. I've been studying since 2020."

Even though he knows he would have been approved without racial quotas, he argues that affirmative action is a form of reparation to correct injustices that are part of the country's history, which had almost four centuries of slavery.

"When white people arrived here, they always had this opportunity. They received land quotas, they received things that give them opportunities to this day. So, the quota policy is actually a reparation for us to try to equalize things that should already be in a better situation. It's a debt. A point that tries to equalize the differences we have in society," he states.

Tiago emphasizes that, just like the supportive family background, access to quality public educational institutions allowed him to succeed in the competitive exam. The young man was able to study at renowned institutions such as the Instituto de Aplicação da Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (CAp-UERJ) and the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ).

Competition

Anticipated for over a decade, the BNDES competition attracted 42.767 candidates from all Brazilian capitals, competing for 150 immediate openings. The starting salary, as stipulated in the bank's new job and salary plan, is R$21.869,76.

The most competitive candidate/vacancy ratio was precisely the one disputed by Tiago, architecture and urban planning, with 2.362 people for the two vacancies offered, generating a competition of 1.181 candidates per vacancy.

The selection results were announced in January of this year. Tiago achieved a score of 110,6. The maximum possible score was 120.

"There will be critics who say the test should be easy. We gave ChatGPT the test, and it scored an 82," said director Helena Tenório, comparing the first-place candidate's performance with that of the artificial intelligence (AI) software. "The quota system works," she stated.

"We performed the exercise of submitting our test to artificial intelligence, and the overall average of those who passed the exam exceeded ChatGPT's score, for example, indicating that good performance was achieved even in a rigorous test, ensuring the continued excellence of our staff," added Helena Tenório.

30% quotas

The BNDES human resources director emphasizes that last year's recruitment process was the first with quotas for Black people, representing 30% of the total positions, above the minimum required by law, which is 20%.

“The fact that the highest score in the BNDES (Brazilian Development Bank) exam came from a quota candidate reaffirms the correctness of our decision to implement an affirmative action policy above the minimum limit stipulated by law. We opted for a 30% racial quota because we believe that more diverse teams are not only more representative but also more efficient,” he told Agência Brasil. Law 12.990, of June 2014, reserves 20% of the vacancies offered in public service exams within the scope of the federal public administration, autonomous agencies, public foundations, public companies, and mixed-economy companies controlled by the Union for Black people. Furthermore, Bill 1958 of 2021, which alters the percentage to 30%, is currently being processed in the National Congress. Regarding federal higher education, in November 2023, Bill 5.384/2020 was sanctioned, updating Law 12.711/12, known as the Law of... Quotas.

The text stipulates that at least 50% of places, per course and shift, are reserved for public school students. The new text provides for a methodology for annually updating racial and disability percentages, based on population statistics, to calculate the proportion of general places and the number of places reserved for these groups.