A former Member of Parliament (MP) for the Dadekotopon constituency, Nii Amasah Namoale, who is one of the 499 LLB graduates denied entry into the Ghana School of Law despite clocking a grade of at least 50% in the entrance examination, has described as disappointing, the posture of the General Legal Council towards them.
According to the three-time NDC legislator, this is the second time he has sat for the exams, after he took an LLB course in the United Kingdom following his defeat in 2016.
Mr. Namoale believes it is time the General Legal Council reviewed legal education in the country.
Speaking on Citi TV’s news magazine show ‘The Chamber‘, Mr. Namoale, who says he took the exams with two of his daughters, lamented the financial implications of the current status quo.
“I am part of the 499 students. I believe that in the whole world, it is only in Ghana that if you have an LLB, you still have to write an exam before you can do the professional bar course. I side with suggestions that we should allow the universities and other institutions to teach the professional course”.
“I did LLB from the University of London. When I came back to Ghana, I didn’t know I had to do Ghana Legal System and Constitution of Ghana. So when I was going to write the exams, they told me I cannot write, so I had to rush to Mountcrest to go and do those courses. So this is my second time sitting for the exams.”
The 2021 Ghana School of Law entrance exams saw 28 percent of the LLB candidates gaining entrance to Ghana’s only institution for training lawyers, with 790 out of 2,824 candidates passing.
The poor pass rate has in the past sparked calls for a reform of legal education in Ghana.
Critics have said the GLC deliberately restricts people from gaining access to legal education.
Admit 499 students who passed entrance exams into virtual school – Eduwatch to GLC
Education think tank, Africa Education Watch (Eduwatch) has asked the General Legal Council (GLC) to admit the 499 candidates who were denied admission into the Ghana School of Law, despite passing the exam.
According to Eduwatch, the action by the Ghana School of Law to deny the students access to legal education is unfair and cannot be justified.
It insisted that the move contradicts the government’s agenda of doubling tertiary enrollment by 2030.
“This action of the Ghana School of Law contradicts government’s own agenda of doubling tertiary enrolment by 2030 and creating equal opportunities for career progression and skills development as a means of curbing graduate unemployment.”
“How would the Government of Ghana attract more students into tertiary education when graduates from our law faculties, even after passing the Law School’s entrance exams, cannot gain admission to the Ghana School of Law?”
Eduwatch however, proffered a solution to the Ghana Law School should it be constrained by physical space.
It insisted that the school can either accept the students as in-person or virtual students.
According to the think tank, this forms part of “government’s tertiary education policy.”
