The National Communications Officer for the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) has hinted of possible educational reforms in the party’s manifesto.
In a tweet sighted by African post, Sammy Gyamfi hinted that the party “shall remove all unjust barriers and expand access to professional legal education.
The NDC is expected to launch the party’s manifesto on Monday, August 31, 2020.
He did this while wishing well for students who are set to take to the Ghana School of
The Law entrance examinations today.
He further urged the students to “expect good news on Monday, when the NDC launches its 2020 Manifesto”.
Ghana School of Law entrance examinations.
There have been several outbursts by students who sat for the entrance examinations from 2017 to 2019 due to mass failure of candidates.
According to the General Legal Council in 2017, about 797 students failed the entrance examinations. This received some outcry from a group that called itself Concerned Law Students that demanded that the GLC publish the result of every candidate in order to ensure transparency and fairness.
The situation was no different in 2018 as 81% of students failed the entrance exams. Only 91 students out of the 474 who sat for the exams passed.
The situation did not sit well with student leaders, spearheaded by Sammy Gyamfi told Daily Graphic that “we think that the Independent Examinations Body had not been diligent in their duties in the marking of our results”.
In 2019 also, 91% of the students who sat for the entrance exams failed. Only 128 students out of the total 1,820 candidates passed the entrance exam.
The situation did not get better as comments made by the then Chief Justice, Sophia Akuffo implied that the failure was a deliberate attempt to reduce the number of lawyers in the country. Speaking in a conference at the Labadi Beach Hotel dubbed “The Changing Landscape in the Law, she said that “those of you lawyers and those of you lecturers who are busy advocating free scale, mass admissions into the professional law course, and mass production of lawyers, be careful what you wish for”.
In February 2020 however, a report presented by Parliament’s Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Committee asked for the General Legal Council to commence remark of the examination written in 2019.
“Mr. Speaker, the Legal Profession Amendment Bill 2018 is currently before the House for consideration. On the account of the controversy surrounding the results of the 2019 entrance examination for admission into the Ghana School of Law, the Committee recommends to the
General Legal Council to commence the process for remarking of the scripts upon request and payment of reasonable fees.”
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