NUGS petitions Parliament over Law School entrance exams failures

The National Union of Ghana Students (NUGS) has submitted a petition to Parliament, demanding that it orders the General Legal Council (GLC) to respond to the new examination rules that led to the mass failure of students who sat for the Ghana School of Law entrance examination.

NUGS in its petition said the Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary affairs committee should request the GLC submits raw scores of the examinations for this year and last year.

“Mr. Speaker we deem it necessary for the raw scores of both the previous year and this year be examined by the committee because we believe it will demonstrate whether or not the separation of scores from the two sections existed before the just ended examinations,” parts of the petition read.

NUGS said it believes the total number of students who passed this year’s law school entrance exams stands at 1289 instead of 790 the GLC said had passed.

The student union also accuses the Independent Examination Committee of the GLC of non-transparency, referencing the GLC’s requirement of students who sit for the school’s entrance exam to sign an undertaking not to challenge the results.

“Mr. Speaker, there is the need for Parliament to investigate the perception that the examinations are not a reflection of students performance but a drawback to limit access to legal education,” it said.

It further urges Parliament to take urgent steps in bringing clarity to issues of allocation of scores and pass marks, so the affected 499 students can join colleagues in time.

On September 28, 2021, the Independent Examination Committee of the Ghana School Of Law released a list of  790 students representing 28% out of the total 2,824 who are deemed to have passed the 2021 GSL Entrance Exams.

However, according to new rules, candidates had to obtain a minimum threshold of at least 50% in each of the two sections contained in the recently-held exams.

A total of 499 students who couldn’t meet this new directive, where denied entry into the Ghana School of Law.

NUGS’s petition is among a number of calls to the GLC, to rescind its decision and readmit the 499 excluded students.

Below is the statement;