SC to forgo announcement of Top 10 Bar passers —Leonen

The Supreme Court (SC) will not announce the names of the Top 10 passers of the 2020-2021 Bar examinations, although it will recognize those who performed well, Associate Justice Marvic Leonen said Friday.

Leonen, chairperson of the 2020-2021 Bar exams, said the justices “decided to be more inclusive in how it recognizes exemplary performance by forgoing the traditional Top 10.”

“Limiting recognition to a circle of 10 risks being beholden to statistical minutiae,” he said in the latest Bar bulletin.

The magistrate emphasized that the objective of the examinations is to determine whether an individual has the minimum knowledge to be a lawyer.

“It is no race or competition. Neither will it predict who among the examinees will become the best qualified within their batch, the better lawyer, the more relevant practitioner, or the more compassionate individual.” he said.

“In short, good lawyering requires skill and a view to making choices that match the nobility of the profession and its desire for social justice. This is not entirely measured by the Bar examinations.”

Leonen said law school graduates projected to take the exams “have also had disparities.”

“Those who had intended to take the Bar examinations in 2020 either had more time to review, or endured more time waiting. The 2021 graduates, on the other hand, had to endure the longer ordeal of preparing to graduate during the pandemic, causing delays in the graduation dates. They have been put in a constrained environment, with only a brief window of time to prepare,” he said.

“Testing two batches of examinees prepared under different circumstances—not to mention the vast number of combined examinees, placing an enormous demand on the examiners—compels the adoption of unique mechanisms that aim to balance these inequities,” he added.

The SC decided to postpone the 2020 Bar examinations due to the COVID-19 pandemic.  The Bar exams will be held in several testing centers across the country in November 2021.

Court spokesperson Brian Keith Hosaka earlier explained that "anyone who is qualified to take the Bar exams in November 2021 will be allowed to take it regardless of what year they graduated."

Leonen said an examinee who obtains a total weighted score of 85% or higher shall be recognized for “exemplary performance.”

“The names of examinees who earned recognition for exemplary performance shall be made publicly available simultaneously with the list of passers, through the same media. Apart from this, no fanfare shall be devoted in releasing information on examinees who rendered exemplary performance,” he said.

“The names in this list shall be arranged alphabetically, and shall also appear in the list of passers. This list shall replace the traditional Top 10.”

The SC will release a report on law schools’ performance. There will also be a separate report on law schools with examinees who were recognized for exemplary performance.

Statistics on the performance of those who did not pass or did not finish past Bar exams will not be made public, but will be given to the law schools themselves.

“It is hoped that by shifting the focus away from how select individuals excel and onto a school’s collective performance, this will encourage deep-seated and wide-ranging improvements in legal education. Law schools would inspire and aspire for excellence that would uplift their entire studentry, rather than select Bar bets only,” Leonen said.—AOL, GMA News