GLC must not compel law students to sign away ability to challenge exam results – Ansa-Asare

Critics have accused the General Legal Council of deliberately restricting people from gaining access to legal education.

Is allowance instantly strangers applauded

A former Director of the Ghana Law School has expressed misgivings about the requirement of students who sit for the school’s entrance exam to sign an undertaking not to challenge the results.

According to Kwaku Ansa Asare, such an action by the General Legal Council (GLC) falls outside its mandate.

“This is illegal; the Council has no right. How do you gag students?” he quizzed.

Speaking on Joy FM’s Super Morning Show Wednesday, Lawyer Ansa Asare argued that law students are taught to be independent and vocal individuals; thus, such restriction contradicts their training.

He, therefore, called for legal action against the perennial practice.

The lawyer was optimistic that the suit could trigger the transformation that the country’s legal education system is in dire need of.

“For once, let the court understand that they are to work within rules. If a non-lawyer should take this issue up, I am sure will strike any such restriction as unlawful or irregular,” he told the hosts of the show.

Concerns about the legal education system have resurfaced after the 2021 Law School Entrance Exams saw only 790 out of the 2,824 candidates pass to gain admission into the professional school.

Critics have accused the General Legal Council of deliberately restricting people from gaining access to legal education.

Admission to the Ghana School of Law for professional legal education requires that successful candidates obtain a minimum rank of 50%.

But Mr Ansa Asare maintains that a holistic overhaul of legal education in Ghana is the effective way forward.