None can doubt about the quality and utility of a proper legal education at a law college. The legal skills, knowledge, socio-economic dimensions and attitude, etc are some of the qualities that can be inculcated only by a law college. However, the final outcome depends upon the personal perceptions and efforts of the concerned individual and we cannot expect that by merely attending a law college a student would be a legal scholar and great lawyer. After all hard work and personal attention is the key to become a successful legal professional. In the below mentioned wonderful piece of opinion, Shamnad Basheer has outlined the importance of effective regulations of law colleges in India.For those of us harbouring notions that Indians aren't entrepreneurial enough, think again. Previous posts highlighted an Indian bar exam in the offing. Despite the lack of any indication from the Bar Council as to what form such exam would take and the likely timelines for its implementation, we already have websites that are beginning to offer coaching for potential bar aspirants!
With coaching centres mushrooming this early in the game, we can be sure that is the next big money spinner in the "legal" arena.
The advent of such coaching centres ought to alert us to the fact that a bar exam cannot be a proxy for effective regulation and accreditation of proper law schools/colleges. For students would simply focus on such bar training through centres, without bothering about the quality of legal education that they receive from the various law schools/colleges.Secondly, a bar exam simply tests one for his/her capability to practice the law (whether in a court room or in an advisory capacity). A good legal education on the other hand ought to do much more in terms of encouraging one to think critically, drive social change etc . Lastly, the pass or fail rates at the bar exam may not be much of an indication for how good the candidates' law school or college is. Rather all it might tell us is how good or bad the particular bar exam coaching centre (that the candidate went to) is!
SOURCE: LAW AND OTHER THINGS
