Access to legal education in Ghana continues on a worrying trend as only 28 per cent gain admission in 2021
The struggles of the Ghanaians trying to access legal education has once again been brought to the fore following the release of results of the LLB students who sat for the entrance exams this year.
Per the results, this time around 790 out of 2,824 candidates was successful as they passed the exams written earlier this year. According to the numbers admitted into the Ghana School of Law in previous years, 2019 had just 128 candidates out of a total of 1,820 who passed the exam whereas, in 2017, 500 students were admitted into the School, with 450 students admitted in 2016. The only year with exceptionally high admission numbers is 2020 where 1,045 students out of 2,763 passed the entrance examination.
The issue has generated criticism from many individuals with the General Legal Council being the repository where such criticisms are sent. Many are accusing the GLC of deliberately restricting people from gaining Legal Education in Ghana.
Also leading the pack of those who criticize this system is Law Professor Kwaku Asare known as Kwaku Azar, a US-based private lawyer and accounting professor who attempted a legal redress to the menace. His efforts did not yield significant results, with the former Chief Justice Madam Sophia Akuffo insisting in the heat of the criticism for the previous years’ results that she would never drop the standards of admission into law school during to ceremony Usher in new lawyers who had called to the bar.
A lecturer at the Law Faculty of the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA), Professor Isidore Tufuor had recommended the introduction of a paralegal training system to absorb most of the unsuccessful applicants to the Ghana School of Law who wished to have legal training and not necessarily be lawyers.
This he said would reduce the frustration of being stuck as just an LLB student who cannot practice the knowledge one has gained.
A minimum rank of 50% is required for admission into the Ghana Law School to access professional legal education.
By: Stella Annan | myactiveonline.com Twitter @activetvgh
