The Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Godfred Yeboah Dame, has offered a three-way solution to the General Legal Council to enable the council to admit the 499 students who were denied admission into the Ghana School of Law.
The letter was written long before the motion for censure initiated by the NDC MPs was done after they claimed the AG did not accede to Parliament’s demands.
According to sources, the President had also directed the AG to help resolve the matter even before the affected students petitioned Parliament over the mass denial of admission.
In the AG’s letter explaining the government’s position following Parliament’s resolution to compel the GLC to admit the students, he had made it clear that the President had the mode of exercising legislative power as enshrined in Article 106 of the Constitution, and did not admit parliamentary ‘resolutions’, saying that the executive arm is the one vested with the power to direct and advise the General Legal Council on major matters of national importance.
The letter by the AG to the GLC was written on November 1, 2021, days before the NDC MPs hurriedly filed a motion saying they wanted him removed as the government’s Legal Advisor.
Mr. Dame told the GLC that he had observed that despite the GLC not advertising any pass mark or threshold before the exams, it was widely assumed the 50% general pass mark applied in 2020 would apply this year (2021).
“Reasonableness and fairness required the GLC to have communicated the alteration in the process of admission of students into the Ghana School of Law,” the AG said, adding “this became more imperative when an account is taken of the immense public interest in the admission processes of the School of Law.”
The failure by the GLC to communicate the pass mark issue has “created unwarranted doubts about the transparency of the process,” and as a result suggested three alternative solutions for the GLC to act upon.
The first option demands that the GLC grants the 499 students deferred admission into the Ghana School of Law with effect from May 2022.
“A special provision can be made for the first year professional law course by candidates already admitted to run from October 2021 to April 2022. Thus, the 499 candidates may undertake their programme from May 2022 and ending in November 2022.
“Arrangements will have to be put in place for the two sets of candidates to undertake their pupilage and be called to the Bar at a common date in the next two years,” he said.
The second option demands that the GLC grants the 499 students immediate admission effective November 2021 and said provision should be “made for the organisation of classes in a way as to be able to cater for the needs of the entire candidates of the Part One Course of the Professional Law Programme.”
In the final option, the AG said the GLC can conduct a special examination in November 2021 to allow the 499 students to justify their admission into the Law School for the 2021/22 academic year.
“Such examination may be on ‘essay questions’ which properly assess the ability of candidates to reason legally and resolve practical problems.”
He has further advised that in the future when the GLC is conducting an entrance exam for admission into the Ghana School of Law, the GLC should clearly advertise the pass mark to ensure transparency and accountability.
By Ernest Kofi Adu