Accra, February 21, 2018//-Pressure is mounting on General Legal Council to scrape the Law School’s Independent Examination Board (IEB) following the catastrophic failure in the 2017 Bar exams.
The former Director of the Ghana Law School, Kwaku Ansah-Asare, and President of the Students’ Representative Council (SRC), Samuel Gyamfi, are united in their conviction, the exams body has no legal backing.
Their comments follow an outcry by law students disappointed at the results of the 2017 Bar exams.
Mass failure was recorded after 81% of the prospective lawyers failed the exams administered by the Independent Examination Board.
The results have led to renewed calls for the scrapping of the IEB set up in 2013.
It was formed to address frequent examination leakages after lecturers were asked to set questions. The identities of the examiners are hidden and there are no direct contacts to the examiners some of whom are reported to be residing outside the country.
But the IEB has no law backing its operations.
The SRC President of the Ghana Law School who spoke on the Joy FM Super Morning Show Wednesday, described the IEB as an “ad hoc business” that has become a god unto themselves.
He said it took the IEB nine months to mark barely 600 scripts.
Students who failed exams had no opportunity for re-marking, he said explaining the IEB only agreed to re-collate marks after the aggrieved student paid 650 cedis.
Even with this concession, it was found that some students who had initially failed later passed, forcing the IEB into further concessions, he said.
The IEB now remarks scripts and charges 3,000 cedis for each request.
Since the body began its work in 2013, it has never released a single examiner’s report. The Board has also been accused of marking scripts without a marking scheme.
Samuel Gyamfi said despite the hidden identities of the examiners, the students have found out that one of the examiners is a Chartered Accountant with no legal training.
He claimed some of the examiners live abroad and set questions on topics that have not been treated in class and also outside the syllabus.
This is because the examiners have no idea what is taught in class, the student leader said.
The former Director of Ghana Law School, Prof. Ansah Asare also expressed disappointment in the General Legal Council for setting up an examination body that had no legal backing.
He also expressed disappointment in students who caved in after threatening to boycott the exams because of the illegality of the IEB.
‘Why do you lend credibility [to IEB] by going to write the exams if you know the IEB is illegal?’
The IEB “should be scrapped immediately” he said and accused the Chief Justice and the Attorney-General of hijacking the General Legal Council.
He said the GLC which administers legal education in Ghana is composed of only one academic who is the Dean of the Law Faculty of the University of Ghana.
The rest are Supreme Court Justices and others in non-academic fields of endeavour.
Speaking on 3FM on Wednesday, a member of the Judicial Council of the Students’ Representative Council, Frederick Abu-Bonsrah, who is also the Course Rep of the Kumasi campus of the School, said they have gathered numerous cases of malpractices over the marking of the scripts, which took nine months.
“The fact that people have been marking without marking schemes and taking the papers home…” Master Abu-Bonsrah alleged.
He said they would roll out a number of actions to have reforms carried out.
The 170 referred students should not be allowed to write their exams in March but in June, he stated as part of the students’ demands.
He said repeated students should be given at least seven months to prepare for the next sitting.
Though he stopped short of giving timelines, Master Abu-Bonsrah said they will petition the Chief Justice, Her Ladyship Sophia Akuffo over their concerns as they begin wearing red arm bands.
African Eye Report with additional files from myjoyonline and 3news
