Find innovative ways of opening up legal education – Baba Jamal to GLC
Ordinarily, admission to the Ghana School of Law for professional legal education requires that successful candidates obtain a minimum rank of 50 percent, but the new directive meant some students were disappointed despite exceeding the 50 percent mark
Former Member of Parliament for Akwatia in the Eastern Region, Baba Jamal, has called on the General Legal Council (GLC) to find creative ways of opening up processes for the admission of more students into the Ghana School of Law.
The 2021 Ghana School of Law entrance exams saw 28 percent of the 2,824 LLB candidates gaining admission into the school after passing the mandatory entrance exam.
This has been the trend in the last few years.
Mr. Baba Jamal in a Citi News interview decried the high failure rate of persons seeking to acquire legal knowledge at the Ghana School of Law
When you look at the lawyer to citizen ratio in this country, it is still very low. I know there are about just some 4,000 to 5,000 lawyers in this country and if you strike the average, you will see that the number is very low. So obviously we need more lawyers. I agree with those who still think we should keep that gate tight and ensure that only quality comes out, but I also agree with those who think we should open it for more people to enroll because there are a lot of people who can become very good lawyers who are being kept outside.”
“So I think that we should find a way of opening up. I would like to enjoin the General Legal Council to look at their decision again and see how best more people can be allowed to enter.”
In a related development, the aggrieved candidates of the 2021 Ghana School of Law entrance examination have petitioned the Independent Examination Committee of the General Legal Council to demand the admission of all students who obtained the overall 50 percent pass mark during the exams.
The students also attained the 50 percent mark, but were rejected because they attained less than 50 percent in one of the two sections of the entrance exam.
Ordinarily, admission to the Ghana School of Law for professional legal education requires that successful candidates obtain a minimum rank of 50 percent, but the new directive meant some students were disappointed despite exceeding the 50 percent mark.
In the petition, they asked the GLC to rescind this directive, which they say “sought to implement a quota system” which has denied 499 of them entry into the Ghana School of Law.
