Protocol dictates that these students re-sit the exams, but the SRC has demanded that the results are scrapped, to allow the students to proceed with their six-month internship in March.

[contextly_sidebar id=”6wtsdpxYSDgox66DStdMIJyhyRwn8XHw”]”Tentatively, 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.

He added that almost 300 students are to repeat the entire course, whilst 170 students would have to be referred.

Describing the failures as “unprecedented”, Mr. Gyamfi said the demands of the Council were in service of future student batches.

“We are making this point not because we have failed. Some of us have passed. Some executives have passed. But we are doing this for posterity, for those who will come after us so that the systems are improved and corrected, and sad occurrences like this averted.”

“…in the medium term, we are of the opinion that the IEB system should be scrapped, and we are of the opinion that all students should be allowed to commence the mandatory six months internship programme from March 1 because that is the only appropriate thing to do under the circumstances.”

Lectures must set their own questions

Mr. Gyamfi further 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.

Fight over admissions

These calls come in the midst of the tensions between students and the Ghana Legal Council over the Legal Profession Regulations LI before Parliament.

A group calling itself the Concerned Law Students, has threatened to seek redress at the Supreme Court if Parliament fails to withdraw the controversial Legal Profession Regulation.

The Association of Law Students has also petitioned President Nana Akufo-Addo over the matter.

The regulation, which will determine qualifications procedure into the Ghana School of Law, has been met with fierce resistance from the law students.

The students have described the LI as a deliberate attempt by the council to frustrate them in violation of their rights.

But the General Legal Council, which oversees legal education in Ghana, has argued that the exams and interviews are to ensure higher standards in legal education.

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By: Marie-Franz Fordjoe & Delali Adogla-Bessa/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post Law School SRC angry after over 80% fail exams 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.

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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.

Speaking on Eyewitness News, the plaintiff in the case, Professor Kwaku Asare, revealed his discontent with the suspended aspect of the judgement, describing it as a “serious constitutional error”.

[contextly_sidebar id=”DJphJPyH82CmJQlRom268gjVdhqhPO4U”]In the Supreme Court’s decision barring the General Legal Council from asking applicants to the Ghana Law School to sit for entrance exams and interviews, it said the judgment was to be implemented in 2018, meaning students in 2017 were to go through the process deemed unconstitutional by the apex court.

“I think that is a serious constitutional error. The Supreme Court has said that the examinations and the interview are unconstitutional, and yet the court is telling the council to go ahead and engage in the unconstitutional activities, and is inviting the students to also do same,” Prof.  Asare said of the judgement.

As the judgement was delivered, Prof. Asare said he was convinced that aspect in question was a serious error, and tried to express his reservations in court.

He however added that, he was yet to peruse the judgement in full, but “if indeed the court is saying what I thought I heard the court saying, we may have to go  back to court because no student should take that exam if the court has said it is unconstitutional.”

Prof. Asare further stressed that, any potential defiance was in defence of Ghana’s constitution, insisting that “we might as well go back to court and seek clarification.”

“If the court has ruled that a certain action is unconstitutional, then immediately after the ruling, that action should cease. The court cannot say; well it is unconstitutional, but we are giving you six months to continue in the unconstitutionality, but after six months stop.”

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

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

The post Suspended judgment on Law School admissions serious error – Plaintiff appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.