No conspiracy in law school exams – Akufo-Addo

President Akufo-Addo has commented on the issue of the massive student failure at the Ghana School of Law saying it could be as a result of non-adherence to examination directions.

He debunked what he described as baseless allegations that the failures are deliberate attempts to cut down on the number of lawyers produced in the country.

“So there is pressure on limited resources but it is difficult for people to understand. There is a sense that there are conspiracies to deny some people access,” he said at a meeting with the leaders of the Ghana Bar Association.

Lecturers of the Ghana School of Law last month clashed with the General Legal Council (GLC) over the administration of examinations at the law school.

At an academic board meeting held on February 26, the lecturers, made up of Justices of the Superior Courts and other seasoned lawyers expressed anger over the 2018 law examination results released by the Independent Examination Committee.

The results, released this year, saw a huge number of students flunking.

The 2018 results, which are the worst in the history of the law school, saw as many as 284 out of 450 students failing in the professional law examinations.

The results released by the Independent Examinations Committee of the GLC also saw 177 students referred in various papers. Any student who wishes to apply for remarking is expected to cough up a whopping GHS3,000 ($556) per paper.

Only 64 students, representing only nine per cent of the total number of students, passed the exams.

Also, out of the 10 subjects taken in the exam, students who fail three subjects are deemed to have failed the entire course and are required to repeat the whole course and write all ten papers again. And a ‘C’ is a failed mark.

The Independent Examination Committee, the examiners, operates separately from the lecturers – a system some lawyers and law lecturers have criticised as problematic.

Opponents say a better arrangement would be that the lecturers themselves set questions and provide marking schemes for questions to guide the Examination Committee during marking.

The Chairman of Parliament’s Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs has also written to the Chief Justice, Sophia Akuffo seeking a halt in a repeat class for students who failed the bar examination.

Alexander Kwodwo Abban’s letter which was also copied to the Director of Education at the Ghana School of Law and the SRC President of the School also wants an extension of the period set for remarking the scripts of the failed students.

The law lecturers want the General Legal Council to cause the Independent Examination Committee to take a second look at questions in the 2018 exams which were not within the manuals.

Remarking on the development, President Akufo-Addo state that the crucial role of lawyers cannot be overemphasised so he will use all means available to him to change such a worrying trend.

“Part of the problem is the expectations. Despite all the attempts to vilify us, the profession is a popular one. People want to be lawyers because it’s an attractive profession and I take that as a compliment because they see the work of lawyers as valuable in terms of its contribution to social output. But we need to find the solution that will allow for continuity and peace in a manner that the results come”, he said.

He added, “I think all of us have a big responsibility to put the facts out so that people in Ghana can understand that there are no conspiracies and that the results when they come out are perhaps failures of instructions of the pupils themselves and not necessarily because there is some sinister manipulation of the system.”

Source: ghanaweb.com