Law Students demand reform of Ghana legal education

The National Association of Law Students have hit the streets of Accra to demand reforms in Ghana’s legal education.

The demonstration comes on the back of a failure on the part of the Ghana Legal Council (GLC) to admit 499 students into the Ghana School of Law, despite having obtained the Council’s 50 per cent pass mark in the entrance examination.

Clad in red, the students wielded placards with various inscriptions such as “GLC is not above the law”, “We did not fail”, “We are just being frustrated”, “Justice for all 499 law students”, “The sons and daughters of the market women must also get legal education”, “Open up legal education now” and “Laws are not retrospective”.

The students are expected to present a petition to the leadership of Parliament and President Nana Akufo-Addo.

On September 28, 2021, the Council issued a release where 790 candidates who sat for the 2021 entrance examination had passed, out of the total of 2,824 candidates.

However, nearly 500 other candidates who obtained the Council’s 50 per cent pass mark for entrance examination were not admitted into the Ghana Law School.

Since then calls have been mounting on the GLC to admit the 499 students who obtained the 50 per cent pass mark into the School of Law.

On Monday, October 18, Mr Tony Baah, the Lead Convener of the 499 Aggrieved Candidates, at a press conference in Accra, said the group had petitioned the Office of the President on October 15th, to use his Executive Authority to come to their aid, in their quest for justice and to vindicate their fundamental human rights as enshrined in Chapter 5 of the 1992 Constitution of Ghana.

Source: GNA