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SUPREME Court (SC) Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno has asked law school deans to submit a report that will address the decreasing number of bar passers in the country.
The Chief Justice said that the judiciary is planning to reform the bar examinations that would result to the increase in number of passers in the succeeding bar exams.
"It is now the responsibility of the new lawyers and the law deans. Let us work together," Sereno said during the oath taking ceremony of new lawyers at the Philippine International Convention Center in Pasay City.
Out of 6,608 examinees, only 1,731 had passed the exams conducted at University of Santo Tomas last November 2015.
"I cannot help but think of the 4,874 (or the 73.79 percent) other Bar examinees who did not pass the exams. All of you— both the successful and the unsuccessful ones— stand vividly in my mind," Associate Justice Arturo Brion, 2015 Committee on Bar Examination chair, said.
According to Brion, only 26.21 percent examinees had passed the exams, that translates to ratio of one out of four.
Brion said that he did not want the level of difficulty of the exams be adjusted for the students who find the exams too difficult.
"I cannot personally agree to lowering the level of difficulty of the questions under our present system as a certain level of knowledge and expertise is needed for a Bar applicant to be admitted as an Officer of the Court," Brion said.
"We should not forget that a lawyer is admitted to the practice of law because the Court is satisfied that he or she can competently handle cases and legal matters with some guarantee that justice would be done or at least approximated," he added.
The Associate Justice also said that the judiciary must also look at the competency of law schools to know if they are indeed delivering quality education to the law students.
According to Brion, there are now 140 law schools in the country, up from 107 law schools in 2007.
Out of the 140, only 130 law schools fielded candidates in the 2015 bar exams. Of these, 28 had a zero passing rate. Another 28 law schools registered passing rate of 10 percent or less. Thus, of the 130 participating law schools, 56 or 43 percent had passing rates of 10 percent or less.
"Can we call this law school performance satisfactory? What should the concerned agencies do with these non-performing law schools?" Brion asked.
"Lest I be misunderstood, I do not suggest by these questions and by citing these statistics the immediate closure of the law schools with poor showing, this is a matter solely for the Legal Education Board (LEB) to consider. But at the very least, a close inquiry to this matter should publicly be undertaken so that the public would be aware and concrete and holistic actions can be taken," Brion said.
The oath taking ceremony was attended by the Board of Examiners, law school deans, and the SC justices. (Sunnex)
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