There’s silver lining for UP in bar results

While he is not happy that the University of the Philippines did not place in the top 10 of the 2011 bar exams, the dean of the UP College of Law is more than satisfied with the school’s improved passing rate.

“Perhaps we are not that happy that we didn’t land in the top 10, but we are happy that our passing rate went up from 80 percent the year before to 94 percent,” said Danny Concepcion, the law dean.

Of the 150 UP graduates who took the bar last year, 141 passed while nine were not as lucky.

Concepcion pointed out that the state university has enjoyed a 100 percent passing rate in the bar examinations from the school’s earliest beginnings in 1911 up to 1984.

Not the first time

He said that as far as he knew, it was not the first time that the UP did not place in the topnotchers’ list.

He noted that the class of 1984 also did not land in the top 10 when results were released the following year.

And yet, he said, some of the class members went on to become accomplished professionals, citing former Energy Secretary Rafael Lotilla and Integrated Bar of the Philippines president Roan Libarios.

Not to mention Supreme Court Associate Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno, the class valedictorian, who was President Benigno Aquino III’s first appointment to the high court.

“We train our students not only to pass the bar, but to become good practitioners,” said Concepcion.

The law dean said that making it to the top 10 was not that big a deal anyway. He noted that in 1990 the law schools of San Beda College and Ateneo de Manila University were also unable to land a spot in the top 10.

Still, Concepcion said he was puzzled at the state university’s failure to make the topnotchers’ list.

He said the law faculty will have a long talk with the school’s 150 examinees at a traditional post-bar examinations affair Friday concerning their assessment of the 2011 exams and what needed to be improved.

The faculty will be conducting a survey of the recent bar takers as a form of evaluation, he said.

New format

Asked if the new format of the bar examinations—which included a multiple choice test aside from the usual essays—may have been a factor, Concepcion said: “It’s possible, but we can’t say for sure until we talk to our students.”

Concepcion recalled how the Supreme Court had asked for inputs on how the exams could be improved, and one of the UP Law’s suggestions was to limit the coverage of the test to the basics.

He explained that the bar exams test a student on all subjects, including some “highly specialized fields which not all lawyers will go into.”

“Some of the areas covered like international law, taxation, commercial law and intellectual property law, these are highly specialized. Not all would go into those fields,” he noted.

According to Concepcion, the test should cover only the basics like remedial law, constitutional law, criminal law, court procedure, human relations, evidence, etc.

He said UP Law is continually making improvements on its curriculum to make their course offerings comparable with those of international law schools.

According to Concepcion, the college was not competing with other law schools in the country.

“Instead, we wish to prepare our students for global practice,” he said.