Deal With Mass Failure Of Law Students -Nana Tells CJ

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and Chief Justice Sophia Akuffo

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has asked the Chief Justice to deal with the concerns of the law students who visited the Jubilee House.

The President’s letter dated 7th May 2019, following an earlier petition on the subject of mass failures of students at the Ghana School of Law, demanded of the Chief Justice to intervene in the matter.

The Chief Justice is yet to act upon the President’s request since the 7th of May 2019 correspondence.

 “I, however, assured the delegation that I would convey to you, the concerns that, in my view, required the urgent attention of the General Legal Council (GLC),” the President told the Chief Justice.

Some of the issues raised by the students include the inclusion of examination questions on subject areas outside the course outline provided to students, the lack of availability of marking schemes and examiners report.

Others are the lack of access to actual examination scores for students, the cost of remarking examination scripts and review of the Legal Profession Act, 1960 (Act 32) and to determine whether it is still effective, almost sixty years after its enactment.

The President said he was confident that the GLC under her leadership can resolve the issues “as quickly as possible to bring clarity and transparency to legal education in Ghana.”

The President said he expected the Chief Justice to have resolved the issues related to the final examinations by June 2019.

In a related development, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) has condemned the policing measures and consequent incidents that occurred during the demonstration by persons protesting against mass failures in the recent Law School Examinations.

According to a release issued by the party on Monday in Accra and signed by John Boadu, General Secretary, suggested the apparent excessive use of force by personnel of the Ghana Police Service against the demonstrators who were harmless and non-violent.

“While we accept the position of the police that the demonstrators may have strayed outside the law, and were disrupting the normal usage of the public thoroughfare that passes in front of Jubilee House, we are, however, not convinced that the police had to resort to such use of force and crowd controlling techniques to manage a crowd, mainly of students.

“The police must realize that, just like every other Ghanaian, they are also subject to law and ought to give confidence to the populace at all times, that in applying the law, they do so fairly to all manner of persons.” 

It is in the light of such sad development that “the NPP is calling on the police hierarchy to look into the matter and bring persons who are found to have acted unprofessionally to justice to forestall future occurrence of this regrettable incident.”

The party has also called on the relevant authorities and state actors to grant a hearing to students, who, together with many others, have consistently demanded an immediate reform to legal education in the country to reflect the realities of the 21st century.

“We do empathize deeply with the innocent students who may have suffered any trauma and pray for their speedy recovery,” the party said.

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