Member of the legal team of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Abraham Amaliba
A member of the legal team of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Abraham Amaliba has said all the various law faculties in the country should be given accreditation to offer professional law certificate courses.
This, he said, will help in dealing with the mass failure in the law entrance examinations.
He attributed the mass failure to the limited space to accommodate the huge number of applicants.
“I think that the problem has to do with access. We have so many faculties of law but only one law school.
“It is like a pyramid form and so you all go and crush there.
“One suggestion I will make is that let us accredit the faculties of laws. For instance Mountcrest has faculty of law, just ensure they have school of law, Legon has faculty of law, accredit them to have a school of law so that once you just finish you go to their school of law.
“That for me is the best way to address the issue if access.”
His comments come after two thousand and thirty-four (2,034) LLB candidates who sat for the 2021/2021 academic year Ghana School of Law 2021 Entrance Exams failed in the exams.
Of the 2,824 students from the various law faculties across the country who sat for the exam, only 790 of them passed representing approximately 28% while the failure represents 72%.
Meanwhile, the President of the Students Representative Council (SRC) of the Ghana School of Law, Mr Wonder Victor Kutor, has called for an all-inclusive approach in dealing with the causes of the mass law school entrance examination failure in order to be able to deal with the situation properly.
He attributed the mass failure to, among other things, limited time candidates have to enable them prepare for the entrance examination.
In his view, inadequate preparation is one of the leading causes of the failures.
Mr Kutor indicated that when law students graduate in July and they sit for the exams in August, it will certainly not be enough for them to do adequate reading and learning.
He also mentioned uncontrolled anxiety as a factor.
Speaking on Tuesday September 28, Mr Kutor said “You leave school in July and sit for exams in August and you are doing, let us say taxation or land law and you go and meet tort and constitutional law if you haven’t revised enough you will fail.
“So, we need to have a discussion as a nation. When students graduate in July you allow them to wait and apply the following year.
“Let us discuss this properly, student graduated in July and they sat for exams in August. Was the preparation enough? This is not to defend the General Legal Council but I want us to have a holistic discussion on this matter as a nation going forward.
“We must not limit ourselves to pass and failure. It is not only about passing what happens in this country is that once they release the entrance results then we all start talking about the failure rate but let us be honest, which is why the SRC we have established the scholarship fund.
“I am glad to say that those who have passed can access the scholarship fund, a very transparent process. If people pass without the money to pay, then what is the point? So the discussion shouldn’t be pass rate or failure rate, it is also about the funding. When you enter the law school, in terms of cost, there is a big challenge.”