Accra, February 21, 2018//-A total of 206 law students are to repeat the entire course after failing the final Bar exams at the Ghana School of Law.
Another 177 students have been referred in one or two papers, according to reports. This represents 81% failure for 2017.
Out of 474 students who sat for the 2017-2018 final exams, only 91 students representing 19% were deemed to have passed and will be called to the Bar.
The mass failure by the students comes at a time Parliament is seeking to legalize the entrance exams and interview processes instituted as part of the admission procedures into the Ghana School of Law.
The General Legal Council, the body that oversees legal education and profession in Ghana has mounted a vehement defence for the maintenance of entrance exams.
It argues the exams and interviews are to ensure higher standards in legal education.
But Chief crusader against the entrance exams Prof Kwaku Asare insists the entrance exams and interviews at the Ghana School of Law are illegal.
At the moment, there is an LI in Parliament currently going through a mandatory 21-day period before it will mature into law.
If members of the House are unable to raise two-thirds majority to kick against the LI it will automatically mature into law.
Meanwhile, critics of the entrance exams say the mass failure at the Bar exams is just one example of why the status quo must be abolished.
“The madness of the unruly GLC continues unabated as only 91 out of 474 LLB graduates are deemed qualified to be called to the Bar.
“One more proof that the entrance examinations and interviews are not just illegal and unethical but they are also entirely non-diagnostic. That is, the argument that they are designed to select quality graduates must fail on this performance report.
“Further, this is proof that the Bar exam is a poor assessment tool or that the Ghana School of Law is incapable of training LLB graduates or both.
“Think about it —— only 91 out of the 1,200 law graduates in this cohort are being called to the Bar!!!!” Prof Asare said on his facebook wall.
Law students on warpath with authorities over mass Bar exams failure
The Students Representative Council of the Ghana School of Law has rejected the results of the 2017 Bar exams which recorded an 81% mass failure.
In a communiqué the SRC Secretary, Abena Asare-Boye called into question the integrity of the results, saying it did not reflect the true performance of the 474 students who sat for the final Bar exams.
In the eight-point communiqué, the SRC consequently called on all students who failed the exams to, within the next three days, reject the results and apply through the SRC, for a remarking of the exams.
The rejection comes shortly after it became public that only 91 students representing 19% passed the 2017 exams and will be called to the Bar.
Of the 474 students who wrote the exams, a total of 206 are to repeat the entire course after failing the final Bar exams.
Another 177 students have been referred in one or two papers.
But the SRC is convinced the results could not have been the true reflection of the exams written by the students.
They are therefore demanding a remarking of all the failed papers with a drastic reduction in the remarking fee from ¢3,000- ¢5000.
“In line with the rules of natural justice that a man cannot be a judge in his own court, the IEB, cannot be in charge of the remarking of the scripts concerned. We cannot trust that the IEB will be candid enough to expose their own flaws. We are therefore calling on the GLC to appoint credible independent and professional examiners to mark all failed scripts again,” the communiqué said.
In a roadmap towards a total rejection of the result which they described as “dispiriting and upsetting,” the students are considering taking legal action against the authorities if the results were allowed to stand.
African Eye Report/Myjoyonline
