The decision by the Independent Examinations Committee (IEC) of the General Legal Council (GLC) to withhold the pass mark for the Ghana School of Law (GSL) entrance exam this year and to require the candidates to sign an agreement promising not to contest the results has been met with a variety of reactions from the public and discussions.
Critics of the judgement, including attorneys, law students, and certain civil society organisations, have slammed it as a setback for the advancement of legal education.
Those in favour of the decision, however, claimed that the GLC was acting pragmatically since there isn't much room in the GSL compared to the large number of Bachelor of Laws (LLB) graduates who wish to enrol in the Ghana School of Law to learn the law.
The National Association of Law Students (NALS), one of the decision's detractors, said that the GLC made the choice arbitrarily in an effort "to control the number of candidates evaluated for admission."
Additionally, Kofi Bentil, the vice president of Imani Africa, claimed that the GLC's decision was "oppressive and unconscionable" while Prof. Stephen Kwaku Asare, a lawyer and frequent critic of the GLC, urged for LLB holders to boycott the admission exam.
Support
Kofi Opare Hagan, a Ghanaian lawyer practising in the UK, who was one of the decision's supporters, wrote on Facebook that the GLC's decision was the appropriate one since it was motivated by the real-world difficulties the GSL was experiencing. The maximum number that the GSL will accept is. Let them all take the examinations, and then, we'll decide the cutoff based on overall performance. It is not complicated science. It is simple to understand. And that's the only way they can find a solution to the issue, he said.
a test for admission
The GLC accepted applications for LLB graduates to write the entrance test for admission to read the professional legal programme at the GLS on July 18 of this year.
This year's entrance test, which will be place on September 23, will include two mandatory questions from from any of the six fundamental law courses. Contract law, tort law, criminal law, and real estate law. The pass mark was not included in the Council's statement this year, in contrast to last year when the GLC revealed it as 50% of the overall score.
Candidates for the entrance test must also sign an agreement stating that they would recognise the IEC's results as final as part of the prerequisites.
No requests for script remarking, score recalculation, or mark review will be entertained. Additionally, candidates are prohibited from asking to examine their marked response scripts or the grading system that was applied to the questions, according to the initiative.
Criticisms
In a statement issued on Monday (August 1, 2022), NALS said that the GLC's unwillingness to provide the passing score and require prospective students to sign an undertaking was an example of the secretive system the Council has employed to oversee legal education in the nation.
The undertaking was deemed to be arbitrary, unlawful, null, invalid, and of no consequence by the High Court in its 2020 judgement, which was violated by the decision, according to NALS.
"As things stand, LLB holders are required to take a test without being informed of the passing score requirements. Additionally, we will not be permitted to request a script review, according to the statement.
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