A Lecturer at the GIMPA Faculty of Law, Clara Kassa Tee has called for a liberalization of legal education in the country.
The backlog of students either trying to get into the Ghana School of Law or to pass the Bar exam has led to heightened public concern over the process.
Chairman of Parliament’s Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Committee has described the situation as a national security concern.
Madam Kassar Tee who was speaking at a Stakeholder Engagement on the Legal Professions Amendments Bill organized by the CDD joined calls by other respected lawyers and organizations to demand a change in the system to allow faculties fully train students to sit only for the Bar exam.
“Just liberalise it. As for the details and the framework for the exams, that is now subject for us to sit down and work properly. There should also be a bar exams. We will work out the details and the modalities. Where it is fair for students, we provide them the opportunity and all the facilities for them to pass.”
Only 9 percent of the students are said to have passed the 2018 bar exam.
This was worse than the 2017 results in which more than 80% of students failed, as only 91 out of the over 500 candidates passed.
Almost 300 students had to repeat the entire course, while 170 students were referred.
At the time, many of the students blamed the Independent Examination Board for the mass failure whilst others blamed the existing curriculum.
This situation has left lecturers, including Justices of the Supreme and Appeals Courts, together with some seasoned lawyers livid over what has been described as the worst Bar exam results recorded in the history of the school.
Meanwhile, President Akufo-Addo is of the view that there is no deliberate plan to limit the number of qualified lawyers in the country and is entrusting the Ghana Legal Council to deal with the problem.
The General Legal Council subsequently constituted a Committee to probe mass exams failure at the Ghana School of Law.
There have also been some lawsuits aimed at reforming legal education in Ghana.
Student front divided as School of Law exams takes off despite injunction
The General Legal Counsel recently organised exams for repeat students of the Ghana School of Law despite an interlocutory injunction application filed by some of the students.
Citi News‘ Marie-Franz Fordjoer reported that the students were divided over the issue.
She said while some of the repeat students wrote the exams others refused to partake in it citing the case in court slated for Tuesday, June 17, 2019.
Students who had failed the recent Bar exam and needed to resit appeared in the Human Rights Division of the High Court on Friday to seek an extension of time to enable them adequately prepare and re-take the exam.
The plaintiffs, through lawyer Akoto Ampaw last Friday complained in court that, they were given only three days notice to register and take their examinations five days thereafter.
The plaintiffs insisted that the schedule was unreasonable and violated their fundamental human rights.
The post Liberalize legal education in Ghana – GIMPA Lecturer appeared first on Citi Newsroom.
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