Parliamentary Committee To Probe Law School Mass Failure

PARLIAMENT IS scheduled to set up a special committee to probe the circumstances leading to the mass failure of students at the Ghana Law School.

Majority Leader, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, and his minority counterpart, Haruna Iddrisu gave the assurance when the aggrieved law students visited parliament to petition Speaker Prof. Aaron Mike Ocquaye, over the mass failure.

The Speaker has subsequently referred the petition to the Parliamentary Committee on Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs.

According to Parliament, the Committee would look into the concerns of the students when established.

Subsequent to the assurance, the Committee on Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, has invited the Students’ Representative Council of the Ghana School of Law and its president, Emmanuel Kwabena Owusu Amoah
to a meeting to discuss issues relating to the mass failure.

Out of the over 520 students who sat for bar exams, only 64 passed with 177 referrals and around 280 to rewrite all 10 papers.

Students Representative Council had in its petition to parliament complained that they were extremely disturbed about the mass failure.

The SRC President, Mr. Owusu Amoah, in a statement to update the students on the outcome of the meeting, indicated that “the SRC addressed members of the meeting on issues stated in the petition which among others include: cancellation of questions that fell outside the course material; remarking and recollation of results of all failed scripts including that of post-call students”.

The statement pointed out that representatives of lecturers corroborated issues raised by students about the fact that the system had broken down and had to be fixed.

It added that ” they also raised issues about the reputation of lecturers given the high failure rate.”

According to the statement, “the Chairman of the Committee assured students that given the limited time available, the Committee would hopefully complete its report and present same to the plenary to take final decision on the issues.

BY Melvin Tarlue

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