SUPREME Court Associate Justice Marvic Leonen backed several changes to the Bar examinations, such as the ditching of the practice to come out with the top 10 list of successful examinees.

Instead of issuing a list of the top examinees, the high court can come out with a list of the top 10 law schools, he said.

Leonen, in a virtual talk hosted by The Salonga Center, said that he is in favor of a pass or fail system.

“I am leaning towards a qualitative evaluation system that will determine who passes, who fails, and who passes with high distinction,” he said.

“I am in favor of a list of applicants who passed the Bar with high distinction, without ranking, making the credential available not to an artificial Top 10, but all those who have excelled without the need of comparison to others,” he added.

Leonen said the tribunal should only rank the performance of law schools.

“I will, however, seek to rank law schools but divide these rankings into three lists. First, law schools with less than 50 Bar applicants, second, law schools with 50 to 100 Bar applicants, third, 100 and above,” he said.

“In my view, there will therefore be a list of top 10 law schools in each of these lists, with the most applicants that passed as a percentage and another list of top 10 law schools with the most applicants that passed with the highest distinction. Again, as a percentage,” he added.

With these changes, law schools will be forced to focus on all students, not on individual ‘bar bets’ or those with high chances of getting a high Bar examination score, the magistrate said.

“I encourage law schools, therefore, to focus on all their examinees and treat them all as ‘bets’. The practice of focusing only on person or persons who might make it to the national top 10 should now stop,” he said.

The tribunal is eyeing the holding of a computerized Bar exams because of the pandemic.