8,241 law graduates pass Bar examinations
A total of 8,241 out of 11,402 examinees who took the first online and regionalized bar examinations last Feb. 4 and 6 passed the tests, the Supreme Court (SC) announced on Tuesday, April 12.
The physical oath-taking of the new lawyers will be held on May 2 at the Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City.
In a statement issued by Associate Justice Marvic M.V.F. Leonen, chairperson of the 2020-2021 bar examinations committee, only 3.9 percent of the 11,790 law graduates who were admitted to take the examinations were unable to take or finish the exams.
“Of the 8,241 that passed, 761 earned recognition for exemplary performance, having obtained grades ranging from 85 per cent to 90 per cent,” Leonen said.
The passing grade was 75 percent. The passing rate translated to 72.28 per cent of those who finished the two-day examinations.
The 2020-2021 bar examination was the first that did not recognize the 10 topnotchers as had been done in the previous years.
Leonen said the removal of topnotchers was one of the reforms in the bar examinations.
“The reforms include the recalibration of the grading system to avoid unnecessary competition for an artificial top ten, recognizing that the examinations are not a competition,” he said.
“The system on pass, exemplary pass, and excellent pass without any ranking already recognizes effort without encouraging needless competition among individuals,” he explained.
Also, he said, “as an important philosophical point, we have removed all references to ‘fail.’”
“Instead, we categorize those who did not make it as ‘did not finish’ or ‘did not pass,’” he said.
“To provide feedback to legal education, we have also adopted a listing of law schools reflecting their categories based on the number of their first-time takers who passed and those who did so exemplarily and excellently,” he also said.
Based on Leonen’s statement, only 14 or 0.17 percent of the passers earned recognition for “excellent” performance, while 761 or 9.23 percent earned recognition for “exemplary” performance.
The University of the Philippines (UP) has four excellent passers. Ateneo de Manila University (AdeMU) and University of San Carlos (USC) have two each. With one excellent passer each were Arellano University, Ateneo de Davao University, Far Eastern University, San Beda University, University of Cebu, and University of the Cordilleras.
UP also has the highest number of exemplary passers with 147; AdeMU, 100; San Beda, 94; USC, 57; and Arellano, 39.
Leon said that law school were categorized into four groups based on the number of bar examinees.
Group 1 includes law schools with more than 100 Bar takers; Group 2 with 51 to 100; Group 3 with 11 to 50; and Group 4 with 10 or fewer bar takers.
Leonen said that six law schools earned 100 per cent passing rate for first-time takers. These are Abra Valley Colleges, Batangas State University, Rizal Memorial Colleges, Tabaco College, University of Makati and Western Leyte College.
Seven law schools in Group 3 had 100 percent passing rates. Leonen identified them as the Ateneo de Naga University, Bulacan State University, Jose Maria College, Mariano Marcos State University, Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila, Silliman University, and University of Asia and the Pacific.
For Group 2, the five top schools and their passing rate are Saint Louis University, 98.6667 percent; University of Cebu, 97.4026; Xavier University-Ateneo de Cagayan, 96.9388; Ateneo de Davao University, 96.4912; and Lyceum of the Philippines University, 94.3396.
The five top law schools in Group 1 category are Ateneo de Manila University, 99.6429 percent; University of the Philippines, 98.8406; San Beda University, 98.1061; University of San Carlos, 98.0000; University of Santo Tomas-Manila, 93.0556.