Godfred Yeboah Dame – Attorney General and Minister for Justice
The General Legal Council (GLC), the statutory body responsible for the regulation of legal education in Ghana has been implored by the Attorney General and Minister for Justice, Godfred Yeboah Dame to grant admission to all 499 students who were refused entry into the Law School for the 2021/2022 academic year.
According to the Attorney General, the students should be admitted in November this year or in May 2022.
He suggested that special provision can be made for the organization of classes in a way to cater for the entire candidates of the part one course of professional law course.
Giving reasons for his recommendationIn in a 4-page letter to the Chairman of the GLC sighted by DGN Online, the Attorney General explained that his decision stems from the fact that there is the perception “of a lack of transparency and doubts about the integrity of the admission processes into the Ghana School of Law, created by the manner in which the admission processes were handled by the GLC in 2021, as well as the enormous public interest generated thereby”.
“These circumstances, in my respectful view, warrant a reconsideration of the decision not to admit the 499 candidates. I am aware that arrangements have been put in place already for commencement of the first year professional law course by candidates deemed to have passed the entrance examination for the 2021/2022 academic year”.
As a result of that “pursuant to Section 1(5) of Act 32, I advise the GLC to: (a) grant deferred admission to the 499 candidates 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. 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 further suggested to the GLC to “grant admission to the entire 499 candidates with effect from November, 2021 and provision made for the organization of classes in a way as to be able to cater for the needs of the entire candidates of the Part One Course of Professional Law Programme”.
The Attorney General continued with anothet recommendation to the GLC that for them to “organize a special examination in November, 2021 to accord the 419 candidates an opportunity to justify admission into the Law School for the 2021/2022 academic year. Such examination may be on “essay questions” which properly assess the ability of candidates to reason legally and resolve practical problems”.
Concluding his letter, Godfred Dame implored applicants to register for the entrance examination for the 2022/2023 academic year, informing the GLC that ‘the basis for a determination of successful candidates be clearly spelt out, in order to avoid a reoccurrence of the situation experienced this year”.
Some 790 students out of the 2,824 who sat the 2021 Ghana School of Law entrance exam obatined the 50 percent pass mark, per the figures released by the law school in October 2021.
However, 499 aggrieved students who sat for the 2021 examination and also obtained 50 percent and above pass mark were denied admission by GLC under the pretext of a new quota system introduced after the law school entrance examination had taken place and the results had been released.
Misunderstanding therefore ensued which landed in court.
By Vincent Kubi