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MANILA, Philippines -- Two law school deans disagreed with Supreme Court Associate Justice Arturo Brion’s suggestion to make schools’ passing rates in the Bar examinations public to help students choose where best to enroll for a law degree.
Amado Valdez, former dean of the University of the East law school, said it would be best to focus on improving the overall quality of the schools and the education they offer.
Valdez said making public the schools’ passing rates might cast a stigma on lawyers who were working students and those who could not afford the tuition at better-performing institutions.
He called failing the Bar exam “just an episode in the life of a future lawyer,” noting that many noted lawyers did not make it on their first try and that this should not be blamed on the school they attended.
He held up as an example John Kennedy Jr., the son of the late US president, “who failed the New York Bar exams twice before passing it on his third try" and Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton who flunked the DC Bar on her first attempt but later passed the Arkansas Bar.
Fr. Ranhilio Aquino, dean of the San Beda School of Law, on the other hand, suggested it is the quality of the Bar examination that needs improvement, rather than law schools.
“We have to ask, ‘Is the Bar examination a good exam’?” Aquino said.
Speaking at the Thursday oath-taking of the 1,731 new lawyers who hurdled the 2015 Bar, Brion bewailed the low passing rates of some law schools, noting that of the 130 schools whose graduates took last year’s Bar, only three had passing rates of 70 percent or better, and 10 had 50 percent to 69 percent rates.
“Thus, of the 130 participating law schools in the 2015 Bar exams, only 13 law schools, or 10 percent, can say that half of their Bar candidates passed,” Brion said.
On the other hand, he said, 28 schools had no passers and 28 more had 10 percent or less passing rates. “Thus, of the 130 participating law schools, 56 or 43 percent had passing rates of 10 percent or less,” he noted.
Brion said he was not calling for the closure of low-performing schools but stressed that something must be done to address the issue as he called for the disclosure of the passing rates, which are kept confidential and shown only to the schools.
“The law school passing rates should be given the widest publication so that the public can at least be informed that enrolling in a given law school poses an 80 or 90 percent or even a 100 percent hazard of failing the Bar exams. I challenge the Court and the Legal Education Board to start now with the 2015 Bar exams,” he said.
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