Ghana School of Law reverts to 2-year curriculum next year

The Ghana School of Law is set to revert to its original two-year programme length, school authorities have announced.

Currently, the School mandated to offer the Professional Law Course runs a one-year program with an additional six months of internship.

“From the next academic year, the General Legal Council has decided that the Ghana School of Law should revert to the two-year professional law course,” the Director of the School, Henry Kwesi Prempeh-Eck announced on Wednesday.

Mr. Prempeh-Eck said the decision to revert to that system will come with challenges which would require the support of all stakeholders to ensure its smooth implementation.

“This will bring us a few challenges, notably classroom space, adequate library facilities and other amenities to eventually deal with the increased student numbers.”

To deal with this, the management of the school “has established the emergency implementation committee to advise us to help prepare the school for the additional intake of students for the next academic year.”

This development comes at a time when there have been several calls for reforms in legal education.

Mr. Prempeh-Eck made the announcement at the Akoto lectures at the Ghana School of Law.

He said the professional law course part two will still be followed by the six-months internship programme before the students are called to the Bar, and this “is designed to afford the students practical skills in the profession.

Justice for students?

A law lecturer at the University of Ghana, Dr. Opoku Adusei, ascribed the 2017 80% failure rate at the Ghana School of Law to the one-year Ghana School of Law programme which he said left students with limited time to study.

He said the reduction of the number of years spent in the school was “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.” Read Full Story