Law students in Ghana demonstrate over mass failure
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Hundreds of law students in Ghana on Wednesday hit the streets of the capital Accra to protest the mass failure in entrance exams into the Ghana School of Law.
This year some 499 students who sat the entrance exams were not admitted into the law school to further their studies towards becoming lawyers.
In previous years, the pass mark in the entrance exams was 50% in both sections. But this has now been reviewed to 50% in each section.
The protesters under the National Association of Law Students (NALS) are now kicking against the use of the revised regulations.
The demonstrators hoisted placards with inscriptions such as ‘Stop traumatising law students’ and ‘We did not fail’ among others.
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In a petition to Ghana’s parliament, students demanded that the Attorney General orders that General Legal Council, the body regulating the law education in Ghana to “within 7 days to present (a) procedures for remarking of entrance exam scripts and (b) regulations specifying how qualified Law faculties can be designated for students to have tuition for the professional law course in accordance with Articles 23, 25 and 38 of the 1992 constitution and Sections 13(2) and 14 of Act 32.”
It also demanded that the remarking fee at the Ghana School of Law be reduced.
Members of the National Association of Law Students (NALS) and some persons who couldn’t make it into the Ghana School of Law this year hit the streets today, Wednesday, October 20, 2021, to demand reforms in Ghana’s legal education regime. pic.twitter.com/nyOJdPPziN
— roland walker👣 (@rowalkerghana) October 20, 2021
Although various institutions run law programs, to become a lawyer and be able to practice, one needs to gain admission first into the Ghana School of Law.
But it is not that easy. The Ghana School of Law is the only institution mandated to train lawyers.
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The school is the only one that provides training for law graduates in the Barrister at Law program.
The Professional Law Course is designed for Law Graduates who have obtained an LLB degree and have passed the entrance examination.
To gain admission into the Ghana School of Law, candidates must write an entrance exam and to graduate students must pass their final exams.
But in recent years there have been several controversies over the rate of failure among exam candidates.
Source: Africafeeds.com
