Today in History: 65% of lawyers admitted to the Gambia Bar are Ghanaians who failed entrance exams, according to the SRC President.
Exactly a year ago today, Wonder Victor Kutor, the recently departed President of the Students Representative Council (SRC) of the Ghana School of Law, claimed that the Gambian Bar is brimming with Ghanaian lawyers.
According to him, these Ghanaians in the Gambia law system are people who were regarded as failures from Ghana when they sat law exams.
Read the full original story, first published by GhanaWeb on Wednesday, September 29, 2022, below:
Mr Wonder Victor Kutor, President of the Students Representative Council (SRC) of the Ghana School of Law, has stated that 65% of lawyers called to the Gambia Bar this year are Ghanaians who failed the law entrance examinations in Ghana.
He explained that after Ghana failed them, they applied to study in the Gambia and were called to the Gambia Bar upon completion.
Mr Kutor stated that failing an examination is not an indication that the students were below standard.
In order to deal with the situation properly, he has called for an all-inclusive approach to addressing the causes of mass law school entrance examination failure.
He attributed the mass failure to, among other things, limited time candidates have to enable them prepare for the entrance examination.
In his view, inadequate preparation due to the limited time is the leading cause of the failures.
Mr. Kutor stated that when law students graduate in July and take the exams in August, it will almost certainly not be enough time for them to adequately prepare.
His remarks follow the failure of two thousand and thirty-four (2,034) LLB candidates who sat for the 2021/2021 academic year Ghana School of Law 2021 Entrance Exams.
Only 790 of the 2,824 students from various law faculties across the country who sat for the exam passed, representing approximately 28%, while 72% failed.
On Tuesday, September 28, Mr Kutor said on Good Evening Ghana, "You leave school in July and sit for exams in August and you are doing, let us say, taxation or land law and you go and meet tort and constitutional law and if you haven't revised enough, you will fail."
"As a result, we need to have a national discussion." When students graduate in July, they are allowed to apply the following year.
"Let us talk about this properly; the student graduated in July and took exams in August." Was the planning adequate? This is not to defend the General Legal Council; rather, I want us to have a comprehensive discussion about this issue as a nation in the future.
“We must not limit ourselves to pass and failure. It is not only about passing what happens in this country is that once they release the entrance results then we all start talking about the failure rate but let us be honest, which is why the SRC we have established the scholarship fund.
“I am glad to say that those who have passed can access the scholarship fund, a very transparent process. If people pass without the money to pay, then what is the point? So the discussion should not only focus on pass or fail rates, but also on funding. There is a significant financial challenge when entering law school."
He added “I want to make a point respectfully, normally what happens is that when some are unable to entre they go to other jurisdictions, Gambia, Rwanda and Nigeria.
“I want to give this advice to the general public, to our colleagues, who have not been able to entre that we know of such individuals who went to Rwanda and came but and were not admitted for post-call, they had to go to Gambia when they came back Gambia is recognized and they were admitted. So they have to check properly which institutions they ae going to.
“Now, on the back of this, one of the things the SRC will do that we know this is a Ghanaian problem and ought to be given a Ghanaians solution.
“To say that students have failed entrance examination is not to say they are bad students. Just check the statistics 65 per cent of lawyers call to the Gambia bar this year, are Ghanaians and these are people who failed the entrance exams and went to Gambia.
blogpay
Total Comments: 0