Ghana’s Legal Education Reform: Understanding the Shift from Makola Law

Parliament has passed the Legal Education Reform Bill, a major step toward ending the long-standing monopoly of the Ghana School of Law over the training of lawyers in Ghana. The reform is intended to decentralise professional legal education by allowing selected accredited law faculties to train prospective lawyers, thereby widening access for the many LLB holders who have struggled to gain entry into the current system.

The memorandum to the Bill explains that many of today’s challenges arise from the framework created under the Legal Profession Act, 1960 (Act 32). Under that regime, the same institutional arrangement governs both legal education and legal practice. 

According to the memorandum, this has produced two main difficulties. First, professional legal education and training have remained largely unregulated. Second, the same body is made responsible for overseeing both legal training and professional conduct.

This write-up is not intended as a criticism of either system. Its purpose is simply to help readers understand the differences between the current Makola system and the new reform model, and to appreciate what changes may lie ahead.

Organisation, management and supervision

At present, legal education is supervised by the General Legal Council, which was established under the Legal Profession Act, 1960 (Act 32). The Council is responsible for legal education, professional training, and ethical standards within the legal profession generally.

Under the new reform regime, that responsibility will shift to the proposed Council for Legal Education and Training, which is to be established under the Legal Education Reform Bill. The new Council will have a wider and more specialised mandate. It will accredit universities to provide legal education and training, work with the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission to set accreditation benchmarks, and oversee the professional and practical training of future lawyers. It will also prescribe courses of study, advise government on legal education policy, recommend national standards, and ensure that Ghana’s legal training remains aligned with comparable legal systems.

Entrance and access

One of the most debated aspects of the current Makola system is access. Under the existing regime, admission into professional legal training is gained through a competitive entrance examination into the only recognised professional law school, which currently operates across four campuses.

That process has, however, attracted sustained criticism. Many have described it as unfair and exclusionary, arguing that it leaves a large number of qualified LLB graduates without any realistic pathway to professional legal training.

The reform Bill seeks to address this concern by decentralising professional legal education to accredited faculties. Under the new system, qualifying LLB graduates will be admitted into a Law Practice Training Course run by those institutions. Admission is still expected to be competitive, but the new framework is designed to broaden access and reduce the concentration of professional training in a single institution.

Duration and structure of training

The current Makola system runs for two years. It is divided into Part One and Part Two, with the courses across both levels amounting to eleven(11) in all.

The reform model will also run for two years, but its structure will be different.

The first year will focus on the Law Practice Training Course. During that period, students will study subjects such as Civil Procedure, Criminal Procedure, Advocacy, Ethics and Practice of Law, as well as Conveyancing and Drafting. These subjects will form the basis of assessment for the National Bar Examination.

The second year will be devoted to mandatory practical legal training. This is intended to serve as a bridge between classroom instruction and professional qualification. At this stage, students will be expected to develop practical competence through placements in law firms, clerkships with appellate judges, observation within administrative agencies, and ad hoc legal service to persons in need. Completion of this practical training will be a condition for eligibility to sit the National Bar Examination.

Examinations

Under the current Makola system, the Independent Examination Council(IEC) is responsible for organising all examinations, including the entrance examination as well as the internal Part One and Part Two examinations. Although current Part Two students do not sit a formal national bar examination, the existing examination system has come to be seen over the years as rigorous, competitive, and standardised. Much of that confidence has been linked to the separation between teaching and examination.

Under the reform regime, a National Bar Examination Committee will be established. The Committee, made up of seven persons, will be responsible for conducting examinations and assessing students who have completed the Law Practice Training Course and satisfied the requirements for eligibility. Those who pass the National Bar Examination will then qualify for enrolment on the Roll of Lawyers.

With Parliament having passed the Legal Education Reform Bill, the next step is presidential assent. Once assented to, the law is expected to be operationalised by September, marking the beginning of a new phase in the training of lawyers in Ghana.