He attributed the mass failure to a number of factors including the one-year Ghana School of Law programme which he said leaves students with limited time to study.

[contextly_sidebar id=”ZJE1BSrSoIISMs64iUISxG8mq4ecp62o”]“When I heard the news and read it, I said this is disastrous,” he said on the Citi Breakfast Show on Wednesday.

“…The statistics we have point to the fact that out of the over 500 students who sat for the exams, only 91 students passed in all 10 courses,” the school’s SRC President, Samuel Gyamfi told Citi News earlier.

The SRC, which expressed anger over the issue had earlier called for the school’s Independent Examinations Board, which conducted the exams and was responsible for the marking of the scripts, to be scrapped, describing it as a threat to legal education in Ghana, after only 91 of the over 500 students passed the exams.

The law lecturer also complained that the reduction of the number of years students spent on campus from two to one, is “a travesty of justice.”

“That decision to actually transition from the two-year classroom work which was compressed to one year was a serious travesty of justice. I had occasions where when I was in the school of law Legon, acting on behalf of the dean then, in deans meeting, it came up strongly that the decision was poorly thought through by the General Legal Council because it was not serving any purpose. You finish all the academic work in one year and unleash unto the field for a couple of months to go and do what is called internship.”

“These are internships that may not really add a lot to your study. Then you come, you are called to the bar. I think that period is a wasted period and should have been added to the classroom work. They have to think of just going back to the system that existed in the past where academic year was for two years.”

Speaking on the Citi Breakfast Show, the law lecturer also blamed the leadership of the Ghana School of Law for the mass failure rate.

He also raised concerns with the setting of questions and marking of scripts by the school’s Independent Examinations Board instead of the lecturers.

“It borders on a number of issues. When we entered law school, the system that was being run was that you knew who was setting the question because they were the people who were teaching the courses. The other bit is that since they were the ones who set the questions they were the ones who marked. So you could have that level of predictability in terms of answering the questions.”

“When we were in law school, and as it existed then, we had the courses being taken in two years. There was later, a bit of transitioning into a new arrangement, where all the courses were now being taken in a year.  If you are going by it…students basically had very short period of rest in between and all the time they had to work. So those are some of the factors which I believe might have contributed to this disastrous outcome,” he added.

Controversy over LI 

The development comes at a time when Parliament is debating an LI brought before it by the General Legal Council (GLC); the body that oversees the legal profession and legal education in Ghana.

The LI, if endorsed by Parliament will see the legalization of entrance examination and interview processes by the GLC for prospective law students.

The GLC insists the measures will ensure only qualified persons are admitted to produce quality lawyers in the country. However, some have suggested that the recent failure makes nonsense of the processes, and emphasizes on the need for focus to be placed on restructuring the school’s curriculum.

–

By: Godwin Akweiteh Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @AlloteyGodwin

The post Blame 1-yr law school course for mass failure – Law lecturer appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

The SRC had earlier called for the school’s Independent Examinations Board, which conducted the exams and was responsible for the marking of the scripts, to be scrapped, describing it as a threat to legal education in Ghana, after only 91 of the over 500 students passed the exams.

[contextly_sidebar id=”wQsYd8tCWSjZGtQrKpUp4N342ODY1uVc”]Speaking on Eyewitness News, the President of the school’s SRC, Sammy Gyamfi, said the results did not accurately reflect the performance of the students who sat for the exams.

He stated that in order to ensure the integrity of the exams and the results which were released, the scripts have to be re-marked by “a credible and independent body.”

“Clearly this is a sad day for professional legal education for Ghana. The published results are very dispiriting and discouraging, very disappointing and clearly unacceptable. The results as we have now don’t reflect the true performance of the students. We can’t vouch for the integrity of these results, the integrity of the results is questionable,” he said.

“We believe that systems must be put in place to ensure that independent, credible and professional examiners re-mark the scripts concerned and subject this whole process to an objective assessment whether or not the right things were done under the circumstances. There were fundamental flaws; the circumstances surrounding the whole examination; the delay in the release of the results, the marking; information available to us all point to the fact that something is fundamentally flawed with the entire process. All we are seeing now is not all there is. If we go deeper into the issues and allow independent, credible and professional examiners to remark the failed scripts, we are very confident that a lot more students will pass.”

‘Illegal and unfit’

Sammy Gyamfi reiterated the SRC’s call for the Independent Examination Body to be scrapped, stating that it does not have the mandate or competence to organize examinations in the country.

He added that the Ghana Legal Council, under which the Body operates, risks ruining the futures of the students at the school if it retains the body.

“We think that it is an amorphous and illegal body which is unfit to conduct examinations for professional legal education or any examination of any form in this country. We think they are inefficient, they are ineffective and are toying with the future of innocent students at the Ghana School of Law. It’s incumbent on the GLC, which created that body in the first place to make sure that the body is totally scrapped and that, appropriate systems are put in place to ensure that sad occurrences like this are averted in the future.”

Lectures must set their own questions

Speaking to Citi News earlier, Mr. Gyamfi had advised the school to revert to the previous system of examining students, where lecturers assessed their own students.

“Now the lecturers who teach students will set questions and mark because we have the best lecturers in Ghana, with regards to the law and the kind of courses they teach. There is no reason why lecturers should not be the once assessing the students they teach.”

“Sometimes if the person marking is the one who taught the students, it becomes really difficult evaluating the answer the student has provided in his answer booklet correctly. So it is important that they are mindful and take into consideration all these things and revert to the old system. All the best lawyers we have in the country today: Martin Amidu, Ace Ankomah, Thaddeus Sory are products of the old system,” he said.

Controversy over LI 

The development comes at a time when Parliament is debating an LI brought before it by the General Legal Council (GLC); the body that oversees the legal profession and legal education in Ghana.

The LI, if endorsed by Parliament will see the legalization of entrance examination and interview processes by the GLC for prospective law students.

The GLC insists the measures will ensure only qualified persons are admitted to produce quality lawyers in the country. However, some have suggested that the recent failure makes nonsense of the processes, and emphasizes on the need for focus to be placed on restructuring the school’s curriculum.

–

By: Edwin Kwakofi/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post Re-mark scripts, scrap Exams Board – Law students demand appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

According to the Director of Legal Education at the School, Kwesi Prempeh, management received the results from the Independent Exam Board which supervised the process yesterday [Wednesday], and a meeting with the General Legal Council is being scheduled for Friday before they can be released to the students.

Although he could not state with certainty what had caused the delay, he suggested that it could have been “an issue with the markers.”

“We appreciate [the students’] concerns. The results are in and we are ready to have a meeting of the General Legal Council to discuss the results. It’s being supervised by the Independent Exam Board, and I’m not privy to the reason why it delayed. We got the results today, the Council has to meet, that’s the procedure. The Board of Legal Education has to meet and then the General Legal Council. We are trying to schedule the meeting for Friday,” he said in a brief interview on Eyewitness News.

His comments come on the back of agitations from the students who had expressed concerns that the results from their first semester examinations in particular, have not been released, after sitting for the papers about ten months ago.

The President of the school’s Students’ Representative Council (SRC), Sammy Gyamfi, said on Eyewitness News that the long wait for the results was causing the students “psychological and emotional trauma.”

He however stated that they have had meetings with the school’s authorities and the office of the Chief Justice in order to find a solution to the problem.

Mr. Gyamfi also called for reforms to the examination regime in order to prevent a recurrence of such a situation in the future.

“As far back as April 2017, students of the Ghana Law School wrote eight courses as part of the first semester examination. From that time till now, the results from our first semester examination have not been released to students. Again, in September 2017, we sat for our second semester examinations and five months after that, results for that examination haven’t been released to students as well. It is true that has created a sense of apprehension among students and it’s putting them under emotional stress and psychological trauma,” he said.

“The normal thing one would have expected is that, after students write the first semester examinations, results are released before they sit for the second semester examinations, but unfortunately that wasn’t the case in our situation. There indeed is a problem, but we are engaging the authorities concerned; the authorities of the Ghana School of Law who are equally worried about the developments and are making frantic efforts to remedy same.”

He added that, “We are also engaging the Office of the Chief Justice who is the Chairperson of the General Legal Council, the body responsible for the Independent Examination Board, and we are expecting drastic measures to be put in place so that in the short term our results will be released to us for the rest of our academic activities to go on as scheduled, and also in the medium term some drastic measures should be taken to reform the whole examination system so that we can have a much more effective and efficient system in place.”
–
By: Edwin Kwakofi/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post Exam results are ready – Angry Law School students assured appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

Professor Kwaku Asare is the Ghanaian US-based lawyer whose suit got the Supreme Court to cancel the use of examinations and interviews as requirements for law school admissions. It is based on that Supreme Court ruling, that the General Legal Council forwarded the current L.I to parliament, since the court ruled that the processes were illegal.

According to Kwaku Asare , despite expressing opposition to the idea of restricting the number of persons allowed to practice law in the country following her nomination as AG, and making similar statements following the confirmation of her appointment, Gloria Akuffo has not demonstrated it in her recent actions.

[contextly_sidebar id=”sInHCftoWwT8sC8HJQZDb71L8mUbvZVz”]He stated in a Facebook post on Sunday that the AG could cause the L.I which he described as “retrogressive” to be dropped permanently if she wanted to, as the legislation can only go through if approved by the responsible Minister.

“I am, therefore, dumbfounded that you have directed that the obnoxious and retrogressive LI, which failed for lack of gazetting, be relaid in Parliament. Relaid for what?,” Prof. Asare wrote.

“If you are against the LI, as can be inferred, by your public statements, you are under no obligation to try to make it law. Under the Legal Profession Act, an LI can only be made if you, as the minister, approve it. Thus, you have the power, under the law, and moral responsibility to kill the obnoxious LI.”

He also called for the minutes of the General Legal Council’s deliberations on the Regulations and other related issues to be made public in order to flush out the “retrogressive characters” from the GLC.

“This raises another important point — who on the GLC is imposing these retrogressive ideas? We demand that the votes recorded on these issues be made public. The unruly GLC is an administrative body and cannot operate like a secret society. We must smoke out these retrogressive characters from our institutions!”

The Attorney General called for the Legal Profession Regulations to be withdrawn from Parliament and re-laid because some processes governing such regulations were not adhered to, adding that the regulation was not gazetted on time.

“Your directive to the Ghana Publishing Company Limited to gazette the Regulation after the 22nd of December, 2017, does not meet the requirement of article 11(7) (b) of the 1992 Constitution. I kindly advise that the necessary arrangements are made to ensure that the Legal Profession (Professional and Post-Call Law Course) Regulation, 2017, are re-laid before Parliament in compliance with article 11 (7) of the 1992 constitution,” a letter from the Attorney General to the Parliamentary Committee on Subsidiary Legislation and sighted by citifmonline.com said.

Below is the full post by Professor Kwaku Asare 

Dear Attorney General Gloria Akuffo:

During your confirmation hearings, you spoke eloquently about the tyranny of the entrance tariffs imposed on qualified students by the unruly GLC.

At the launch of the 58th annual Law week, a few months ago, you called “for the restructuring of the current legal education system in the country in tandem with modern trends.”

To that end, you called for the establishment of other Faculties, aside from the campus at Makola in Accra, and the employment of more lecturers to enable the school to admit more LLB graduates. You also refuted the perception that standards and the quality of the law profession would be compromised if the system allowed for more people into the profession.

You concluded, “I do not share the view that we have too many lawyers. It is retrogressive thinking and the excuse that we want to cut down the numbers to maintain standards is not acceptable. In every profession, we have the quacks and so limiting the numbers is not the solution.”

I am, therefore, dumbfounded that you have directed that the obnoxious and retrogressive LI, which failed for lack of gazetting, be relaid in Parliament.

Relaid for what?

If you are against the LI, as can be inferred, by your public statements, you are under no obligation to try to make it law. Under the Legal Profession Act, an LI can only be made if you, as the minister, approve it. Thus, you have the power, under the law, and moral responsibility to kill the obnoxious LI.

This raises another important point — who on the GLC is imposing these retrogressive ideas? We demand that the votes recorded on these issues be made public. The unruly GLC is an administrative body and cannot operate like a secret society. We must smoke out these retrogressive characters from our institutions!

For the avoidance of doubt, legal education was never meant to and does not terminate with an award of LLB in Ghana. The unruly GLC must carefully study the Parent Act and its rich legislative history to appreciate, once and for all, that what the Act contemplates is a bifurcated model with a starting point at the Faculties and an exit point at the School of Law or other alternative institutions. The objective of legal education has always been to produce lawyers not to produce terminal LLB degree holders.

Thus, the LI that the unruly GLC is bent on laying in Parliament will be ultra vires the Parent Act and hence unlawful.

You have noted all the flaws in the current system as unconstitutionally and unethically applied by the unruly GLC.

Everything you are proposing is already provided in LI 1296 while the new LI that you are so strenuously trying to lay in Parliament seeks to legalize the very things that you say are flawed.

I am baffled! Why will you want to legalize a flawed system when the current system provides for everything you espouse?

You have the power to cure all the flaws that you have noted by merely saying the GLC should enforce the law of the land. It is not good enough to just talk a good talk. You must align your actions and your talk.

Madam, use that power now!

Da Yie!

‘Amend regulations before relaying them’

A number of other practitioners have expressed concerns about the L.I in its current form.

Speaking to Citi News, Kofi Bentil, who is the legal adviser to the Association of Law Students, a group that has called on Parliament to annul the regulation, welcomed the Attorney General’s call for the withdrawal of the LI, but urged that before it is re-laid, it should be amended to make legal education in the country more accessible.

“I wish the withdrawal was on substance. Be that as it may, there is a withdrawal. The AG said they should re-lay, what it suggests is that, they might want to go and correct the errors and try and bring it back. If they are going to bring it back, such a controversial L.I. and we are going to have to fight it all over again to have it removed, I think we all go through needless stress when the future is clear that we cannot limit professional law education to only logistical problems of the Ghana School of Law.”

“Best practice everywhere is that, they must expand and allow people who are qualified to take the professional law course. So we hope they do not re-lay it. We actually believe that in the process, there will be some discussions in the back, and I believe reasoning will prevail and that will prevent the relaying of this same L.I. But if it turns out that we cannot agree, the right place to go is the court,” he added.

Muntaka wants Regulations withdrawn

Minority Chief Whip, Mohammed Muntaka Mubarak, last Thursday, also prayed Parliament to withdraw the Regulations.

According to him, the legislation, which has been in Parliament for over a month now, has not even been seen by some of the Members of Parliament as they have not received any copies.

What are these Regulations?.

The General Legal Council laid the Regulations in Parliament on December 22, 2017, in response to a Supreme Court order for a clear admission procedure into the Ghana School of Law, and call to the Ghana Bar.

The proposed L.I. in question, among other things, states that the General Legal Council will conduct an entrance exam for the admission of students to the school, and conduct interviews for all applicants who pass the Ghana School of Law Entrance Examination.

The LI was expected to become Law this month, February, 2018.

But the law students maintain that if the document is passed in its current form, it will restrict access to legal education.

–

By: Edwin Kwakofi/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post Prof. Asare slams AG over ‘retrogressive’ Law School admission L.I. appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

His comment comes on the back of a call by the Attorney General, Gloria Afua Akuffo, for the Legal Profession Regulations to be withdrawn from Parliament and re-laid due to a procedural error.

This, according to the Attorney General, is because some processes governing such regulations were not adhered to, adding that the regulation was not gazetted on time.

[contextly_sidebar id=”x4L6ez7KFAm8r3PS26cmUTlCHL6jIjWg”]“Your directive to the Ghana Publishing Company Limited to gazette the Regulation after the 22nd of December, 2017, does not meet the requirement of article 11(7) (b) of the 1992 Constitution. I kindly advise that the necessary arrangements are made to ensure that the Legal Profession (Professional and Post-Call Law Course) Regulation, 2017, are re-laid before Parliament in compliance with article 11 (7) of the 1992 constitution,” a letter from the Attorney General to the Parliamentary Committee on Subsidiary Legislation and sighted by citifmonline.com said.

Speaking to Citi News, Kofi Bentil, who is the legal adviser to a group calling itself the Association of Law students who had called on Parliament to annul the regulation, welcomed the Attorney General’s call for the withdrawal of the LI, but urged that before it is re-laid, it should be amended to make legal education in the country more accessible.

“I wish the withdrawal was on substance. Be that as it may, there is a withdrawal. The AG said they should re-lay, what it suggests is that, they might want to go and correct the errors and try and bring it back. If they are going to bring it back, such a controversial L.I. and we are going to have to fight it all over again to have it removed, I think we all go through needless stress when the future is clear that we cannot limit professional law education to only logistical problems of the Ghana School of Law.”

“Best practice everywhere is that, they must expand and allow people who are qualified to take the professional law course. So we hope they do not re-lay it. We actually believe that in the process, there will be some discussions in the back, and I believe reasoning will prevail and that will prevent the relaying of this same L.I. But if it turns out that we cannot agree, the the right place to go is the court,” he added.

Withdraw it now – Muntaka

Minority Chief Whip, Mohammed Muntaka Mubarak, had on last Thursday, also prayed Parliament to withdraw the Legal Profession Regulations currently before Parliament.

According to him, the legislation, which has been in Parliament for over a month now, has not even been seen by some of the Members of Parliament as they have not received any copies.

Muntaka also alleged that, information available to him suggests the regulation had not been gazetted.

Annul regulation now

Prior to that, a group calling itself, the Association of Law students had called on Parliament to annul the regulation.

The Association of Law Students on January 29, 2018, petitioned President Nana Akufo-Addo to cause the withdrawal of the controversial Legal Profession Regulations 2017 from Parliament.

The Association wants the President to impress on Members of Parliament to vote against the regulation.

The General Legal Council laid the Regulations in Parliament on December 22, 2017, in response to a Supreme Court order for a clear admission procedure into the Ghana School of Law, and call to the Ghana Bar.

The proposed L.I. in question, among other things, states that the General Legal Council will conduct an entrance exam for the admission of students to the school, and conduct interviews for all applicants who pass the Ghana School of Law Entrance Examination.

The LI is expected to become Law this month, February, 2018.

But the law students maintain that if the document is passed in its current form, it will restrict access to legal education.

–

By: Godwin A. Allotey & Bobbie Osei/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @AlloteyGodwin

The post Amend Law school admission L.I. before relaying it – Kofi Bentil appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

The Association wants the President to impress on Members of Parliament to vote against the regulation.

[contextly_sidebar id=”OunHzZXNpqy1ftHVzmh16Iki6JmkGQJc”]The General Legal Council laid the Regulations in Parliament in mid-December 2017, in response to a Supreme Court order for a clear admission procedure into the Ghana School of Law, and call to the Ghana Bar.

The proposed LI in question, among other things, states that the General Legal Council will conduct an entrance exam for the admission of students to the school, and conduct interviews for all applicants who pass the Ghana School of Law Entrance Examination.

The LI is expected to become Law in February, 2018.

But the law students maintain that if the document is passed in its current form, it will restrict access to legal education.

Speaking to Citi News, the President of the Association, Noah Tetteh, said, “we are asking for students to be allowed to go to the law school, and directly after that, there should be an examination that they will take and if they pass that exam, then those who make it will be called to the Bar as lawyers. We are asking for the intervention of the President. Take away the exams. Take away the interview and allow students to go straight to the law school to be trained as lawyers.”

Noah Tetteh stressed that, the Legal Council should be more focused on improving the quality of legal education and not restricting access.

“The Act which regulates Legal education has been there since the inception of legal education in Ghana. It is not about restricting people’s access to the law school that will churn out quality lawyers in Ghana. It’s about allowing people to go to the law school to improve facilities to improve their education. That is the reason why we petitioned the President.”

Protest from students

A group calling itself the Concerned Law Students had earlier submitted a petition to Parliament against the new LI, describing it as a deliberate attempt by the GLC to frustrate them, something they considered a violation of their rights.

Ken Addor Donkor, the leader of the group, said the proposed LI was an attempt to kill the dreams of law students.

Exams, interviews barred for Law School

When the Supreme Court declared the interviews unconstitutional, it said the requirements are in violation of the Legislative Instrument 1296, which gives direction for the mode of admission.

The Justices in delivering their judgment, also indicated that their order should not take retrospective effect, but should be implemented in six months, when admissions for the 2018 academic year begin.

The plaintiff, Professor Kwaku Asare, a United States-based Ghanaian lawyer, went to court in 2015, challenging the legality of the modes of admission used by the Ghana School of Law.

According to him, the number of people who were admitted into the Ghana School of Law was woefully small considering the number of people who possessed LLB.

The Ghana Law School has been criticized for being overly rigid considering that it serves 12 schools providing LLB degrees.

The current training regime limits the intake into the Ghana Law School to under 500 of the about-2000 LLB graduates annually.

In his suit, Professor Kwaku Asare prayed for a declaration that GLC’s imposition of entrance examination and interview requirements for the Professional Law Course violates Articles ll (7) 297 (d) 23, 296 (a) (b) and 18 (2) of the 1992 Constitution.

–

By: Sixtus Dong Ullo/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post Nana Addo petitioned over LI for law school admissions appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

According to the leader of the group, Ken Addor Donkor, qualified students gaining admission to the Laws School has nothing to do with interviews and examinations, but rather unavailability of space to absorb all the qualified students.

[contextly_sidebar id=”b7a8XesnLVVWNRrT1u86RYNQuKUZ51U2″]Speaking to Citi News, Ken Addor Donkor said the new legislative instrument (LI) which has been forwarded to Parliament by the General Legal Council, lacks the capacity to solve the current admission challenges facing the Law School, and wants government to come up with an innovative strategy to tackle the challenge.

“We are of the view that the existing LI 1296 per regulation 23, allows for an automatic admission of an already qualified law student with LLB certificate, and that should have been the law. The problem with the Ghana Law School today has to do with capacity and so we have since argued that the issue is not about examination and interviews, the issue is about the leaders thinking outside the box by creating enough asset to absorb all of these candidates or students who want to go to the school,” he said.

He strongly noted that, he does see any reason why a student who is qualified and is backed by law is denied the opportunity to enroll in the school.

–

By: Farida Yusif/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post Expand Ghana Law School to admit more qualified students – Group appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

The group has described the LI as a deliberate and unreasonable effort by the Council to frustrate their attempts to gain admissions and their human rights.

Ken Addor Donkor, the leader of the group, said the proposed LI is “an attempt to just kill the dreams of law students.”

The LI in question, among other things, states that the GLC will conduct an entrance exam for the admission of students to the school, and conduct interviews for all applicants who pass the Ghana School of Law Entrance Examination.

This is following the Supreme Court declaring as unconstitutional the requirement by the GLC asking applicants to the Ghana Law school to undertake an examination and subsequent interview before admission.

Thus, it appears the council is only seeking to legalize the process, by getting the law to back it.

Notably, the LI under consideration also proposes that a person may be disqualified for admissions based on the compatibility of their profession to the course. Also, a person disqualified from the admissions process on three separate occasions can never qualify for the law school.

In Mr. Donkor’s view, this and other points from the new LI under consideration were “against natural justice” and against “their [law student’s] fundamental human rights.”

“You can see the subjectivity and the kind of power they have allocated to themselves, and these are public bodies amenable to the supervision of the high court,” he stated.

Mr. Donkor further cited Article 23 of the constitution in his argument, which says: “administrative bodies and administrative officials shall act fairly and reasonably, and comply with the requirements imposed on them by law, and persons aggrieved by the exercise of such acts and decisions, shall have the right to seek redress before a court or other tribunal.”

Exams, interviews barred for Law School

When the Supreme Court declared the interviews unconstitutional, it said the requirements are in violation of the Legislative Instrument 1296 which gives direction for the mode of admission.

The Justices in delivering their judgment, also indicated that their order should not take retrospective effect, but should be implemented in six months, when admissions for the 2018 academic year begins.

The plaintiff, Professor Kwaku Asare, a United States-based Ghanaian lawyer, went to court in 2015, challenging the legality of the modes of admission used by the Ghana School of Law.

According to him, the number of people who were admitted into the Ghana School of Law was woefully small considering the number of people who possessed LLB.

The Ghana Law School has been criticized for being overly rigid considering that it serves 12 schools providing LLB degrees.

The current training regime limits the intake into the Ghana Law School to under 500 of the about-2000 LLB graduates annually.

In his suit, Professor Kwaku Asare prayed for a declaration that GLC’s imposition of entrance examination and interview requirements for the Professional Law Course violates Articles ll (7) 297 (d) 23, 296 (a) (b) and 18 (2) of the 1992 Constitution.

–

By: Delali Adogla-Bessa/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post Students petition parliament to stop LI for law school admissions appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

Prior to the examination, the students had petitioned the Council over a ruling by the Supreme Court which declared the examination and interview requirements as illegal, but the Council rejected their petition.

[contextly_sidebar id=”bkbTg1VbbtbN6RaWU7L2kpYxpqbKDymN”]Speaking to Citi News, the spokesperson of the group, Ken Donkoh, said they will within the next few days seek legal interpretation of the earlier ruling on the matter.

“We will be going to court to seek interpretation of the orders that were given by the Supreme Court. Among them is the consequential orders that were given, and the consequential orders to us was very clear. It was not directing the General Legal Council to engage in any act such as conducting of examination and interview which will form the basis of disqualifying any student,” he said.

He argued that, “it was wrong for us to be directed to take part in a conduct that the Supreme Court of Ghana has declared as unlawful, illegal and unconstitutional.”

Background

797 students failed the entrance exam, which was contentious, to begin with.

Prior to the examination, the students had petitioned the Council over a ruling by the Supreme Court which declared the examination and interview requirements as illegal, but the Council rejected their petition.

The Supreme Court in June declared as unconstitutional the entrance exams and interview session, before admitting new students into the Ghana Law School.

According to the court, in a case brought before it by Professor Kwaku Asare, a United States-based Ghanaian lawyer in 2015, the requirements were in violation of the Legislative Instrument 1296 which gives direction for the mode of admission.

The affected group under the umbrella name, Concerned Law Students, reiterated the Apex Court’s judgment saying “it will be a travesty of justice to still require qualified applicants to pass an entrance examination and subsequent interview in order to be admitted into the Ghana School of Law.”

The group, in a statement, has now challenged the General Legal Council to release the raw scores of every candidate as they say it is unthinkable for 797 candidates to fail.

–

By: Godwin Akweiteh Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @AlloteyGodwin

The post Failed law students threaten court action appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

797 students failed the entrance exam, which was contentious, to begin with.

[contextly_sidebar id=”xANGYQzbG6Ra7sHYOlSZAOuc9bGg69Hj”]Prior to the examination, the students had petitioned the Council over a ruling by the Supreme Court which declared the examination and interview requirements as illegal, but the Council rejected their petition.

The Supreme Court in June declared as unconstitutional the entrance exams and interview session before admitting new students into the Ghana Law School.

According to the court, in a case brought before it by Professor Kwaku Asare, a United States-based Ghanaian lawyer in 2015, the requirements were in violation of the Legislative Instrument 1296 which gives direction for the mode of admission.

The affected group under the umbrella name, Concerned Law Students, reiterated the Apex Court’s judgment saying “it will be a travesty of justice to still require qualified applicants to pass an entrance examination and subsequent interview in order to be admitted into the Ghana School of Law.”

The group, in a statement, has now challenged the General Legal Council to release the raw scores of every candidate as they say it is unthinkable for 797 candidates to fail.

“We call on the GLC to release results of every candidate since it is difficult to fathom that the rest of the 797 candidates whose name did not appear on the pass list all failed. Assuming without admitting that this number failed, the GLC must publish their raw scores/total marks in order to ensure transparency and fairness.”

Find below the full statement

The leadership of the Concerned Law Students note with concern some matters arising from the results published yesterday by the General Legal Council (GLC) of the entrance exams conducted by the GLC on July 14, 2017:

We wish to reiterate first of all that since the ruling was express on the illegality of the admission process, it will be a travesty of justice to still require qualified applicants to pass an entrance examination and subsequent interview in order to be admitted into the Ghana School of Law.

Secondly, the basis for the Independent Examination Body (IEB) and its operations was fundamentally flawed by the Supreme Court when it was declared unknown, therefore illegal and needs not be accorded presence beyond the Supreme Court’s ruling. Consequently, we cannot fathom the continuous role of IEB in the admission process.

Thirdly, we have studied with keen interest the results released yesterday and have the following concerns/queries:

1. We wish to know the number of candidates who turned up to write the exams
2. Who, which body or institution supervised and or marked the examination scripts? Was it the IEB?
3. What was the average score of students?
4. What was the pass mark and how did the IEB arrive at such pass mark?
5. We call on the GLC to release results of every candidate since it is difficult to fathom that the rest of the 797 candidates whose name did not appear on the pass list all failed. Assuming without admitting that this number failed, the GLC must publish their raw scores/total marks in order to ensure transparency and fairness.
6. We are also aware that certain invigilators gave some candidates the wrong instructions, which affected their results in the multiple-choice questions as the machine rejected such scripts. This in fact contributed to the late release of the results? Can the GLC explain what actually happened and how the issue was resolved
7. Will the GLC go ahead with the illegal interview contrary to the supreme court’s ruling?

Finally, we entreat the GLC to do what is needful and offer automatic admission to all qualified applicants (all LLB holders who applied) as per the Supreme Court ruling

Signed,

Ken Addor Donkor

Concerned Law Students

0204021899

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By: Delali Adogla-Bessa/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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