MANILA, Philippines – The Supreme Court (SC) said that the Bar exam results, specifically the scores of individual Bar takers, are sensitive personal information under the Data Privacy Act. Thus, they cannot be disclosed without the prior consent of the examinees.
Chief Justice Alexander Gesmundo made a clarification on Wednesday to address concerns of certain law schools that are requesting data from the Supreme Court.
“That resolution was specifically addressed because certain law schools would want to, I think to study, how they performed during the Bar exams. So they want data from us,” he said in a briefing at the SC building.
Under the Guidelines, the SC may approve requests from law schools for Bar exam scores, as long as these scores are aggregated, averaged, or anonymized and do not identify any individual Bar exam taker.
Permissible data includes the number or percentage of the law school’s graduates categorized by type (new examinees, previous takers, refreshers); the number or percentage of graduates within specific score ranges; the average score of all graduates in each Bar subject; and the overall average general weighted average for law schools with multiple examinees. Additionally, anonymized scores of each Bar taker, with all identifiers removed, are also permitted.
These information are not considered personal information under Republic Act No. 10173 or the Data Privacy Act of 2012 and may be disclosed.
Requests from law schools must be signed by the dean or an equivalent official, and must state a legitimate purpose, such as reviewing and improving law degree programs and performance on future Bar exams.
Meanwhile, the 2024 Bar Exam results will be released on Friday, December 13.
Read: FULL RESULTS: 2024 Bar Exam list of passers, topnotchers
The way of announcement of bar results will be the same as before according to Gesmundo.
“The announcement will be exactly the same as in the previous years. We’ll put up a wide screen at the quadrangle and the names will be scrolled there,” he said.
— The Summit Express
