The rector of the University of Panama, Dr. Eduardo Flores Castro, affirmed that the bar or suitability exam should be necessary for all careers, not only for the degree in Law and Political Science; while he was emphatic in emphasizing that “what must be reviewed is the content of these exams, who applies it and if the academic curriculum is consistent with what is to be measured.”
In the opinion of the highest university authority, sooner or later all professions in this country will have to take that exam: physics, chemistry, mathematics, biology, etc.; because the suitability test “is the only guarantee we have that someone who has the same degree as mine, but who does not have the professional quality, will not compete in the market.”
In this sense, the rector considers that saying that eliminating this type of exam is not rational, because deep down we play the game of universities that do not have the quality they should have and we have to guarantee that quality.
On one occasion, there was a university in Bocas del Toro that graduated graduates in Mathematics, but it turns out that when auditing this higher education center, it was detected that none of the teachers who taught classes were specialists in mathematics, in the end it was closed . This is one of the reasons why the suitability test cannot be removed.
Flores recommends that, if corrections have to be made, they should be done, but it cannot be said that it should be ruled out, because the correct thing to do would be for all careers to go through these exams in the future.
Recently, discontent was made public about the suitability examination of lawyers that began with the application, resulting in only 9 of 150 law students achieving the qualification of fit to practice the profession.
Agreement No. 684 of March 23, 2023, establishes as a requirement that future legal professionals at the end of their academic curriculum must complete the training program for the practice of law, taught by the Higher Institute of the Judiciary of the Judicial Branch, whose duration is 160 weekly hours and ends with the application of the bar exam.
