Supervision and regulation should
not amount to control
The exercise of the State’s constitutional authority to
supervise and regulate schools must be merely supervisory and
regulatory. It should not amount to control. This was the clear
pronouncement of the Supreme Court in Pimentel, et.al. vs. Legal
Education Board which precipitated from the controversial
Philippine Law School Admission Test (PhilSAT). In resolving the
motion for reconsideration of the Court’s earlier Decision striking
down parts of the memorandum order prescribing the PhilSAT, the
Court finally decided to strike down the entire memorandum for
being unreasonably exclusionary, restrictive, and qualifying.
Now, the LEB is on a collision course anew against law
schools and law students as it prescribes face-to-face classes as
the standard mode of delivery in legal education, allowing only
elective courses to be delivered in a hybrid mode. The sad part is
LEB’s declaration that legal education is not for everyone and that
online learners are cheaters. Hence, the need to regulate legal
education.
The pandemic has accelerated the pace of digitalization both
in private and government sectors. We have learned to embrace
new technologies and do our transactions online. Even the courts
have adopted video conferencing in hearing cases. Both
anecdotal and empirical data show that digitalization has solved
many of the physical limitations such as distance from the office
to work or school and the heavy traffic in metropolitan areas.
Online learning gives greater access to students remotely situated
who cannot physically travel without spending so much time and
cost.
The debate on what works best with learners is expected to
continue in the academic community. Regulators should give
sufficient time to all stakeholders to discover that one is better
than the other or that a combination of both is the best.
The educational landscape has been disrupted by innovation.
Regulators must not nip innovation in the bud. What works best
in the past may no longer be effective in our present generation
of learners. Government regulation must not only level the
playing field, it must not be killer of dreams.