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Admission to the faculty of law was one of the hot topics before the general elections of 2020. Indeed, during the audit of the ministers, the Attorney General assured the committee to look comprehensively on the situation. to find solutions that would expand access without compromising quality.
Taking into account the theme of the budget, “Economic revitalization through completion, consolidation and continuity”, our political orientation in all areas of the economy must be gradual and forward-looking. Unfortunately, the issue of access to law schools and the potential of Ghanaians to become lawyers is rather sadly backward.
Brief history
It was reported in 2019 that over 90% of students who took the Ghana School of Law entrance exam of the year failed to pass the admission limit. According to reports, the results show that of the 1,820 candidates who sat for the entrance exams, only 128, or 7%, passed.
In 2018, only 9% of students would have passed the bar exam. It was even worse than the results of 2017 where more than 80% of the students failed, as only 91 applicants out of more than 500 passed.
In October 2019, students and graduates of the Ghana School of Law protested against the school’s entrance exam. We just cannot continue like this as a country. Those affected and other potential candidates marched through parliament and petitioned the General Legal Council to address what they called a “systemic problem” at the Law School. Some of their concerns were massive failure, fees charged for re-registering and marking exam papers, as well as the policy of rewriting all papers if a student fails more than 3 papers.
Policy orientation should be to create opportunities for all
According to the National Development Planning Commission, one of the objectives of the coordinated program of economic and social development policies 2017 to 2024 is to create opportunities for all Ghanaians. As part of this goal, the government should expand access and improve the quality of education at all levels and for all social groups. Education is a fundamental right. Every Ghanaian has the right to aspire to their desired aspiration without any hindrance. The General Legal Council and, indeed, the government’s position in the current budget are highly discriminatory against Article 18 of the 1992 Constitution.
It should be remembered that many concerns have been raised by prospective law students, CSOs and other stakeholders about the need for reforms to our legal education. The advocacy led many students to request the cancellation of the entrance exam and to allow various law schools and accredited institutions across the country to provide professional legal training. Many have called on the government to ensure a full recovery of the challenges in order to make law school more accessible to people who wish to fulfill their aspirations as lawyers.
It is our duty as policy makers to ensure that legal education in Ghana is restructured to ensure that the rights of students to become professional lawyers are not restricted due to man-made challenges and lack of proactive thinking. This certainly cannot happen under the watchful eye of a president known to have strong human rights credentials.
Political orientation within the framework of the 2021 budget
In paragraph 1054 of the 2021 budget it was stated as follows: “ The General Legal Council (Ghana Law School) has registered 549 lawyers at the bar in 2020 ” This implies that if the government takes action to address the mentioned issues above, it is likely that more students would have the opportunity to become lawyers in Ghana. It was also reported that “ the Ghana School of Law held an entrance exam for 2,701 applicants in August 2020 for admissions to the Ghana School of Law, of which 1,045 students passed ”. Even though the numbers represent an improvement in the number of those who have moved on to law school, they still do not answer the question of the lack of access and the discriminatory nature of the current policy.
What is worse is that the budget stated that “ in 2020, a total of the 549 registered lawyers after entrance exams were held for 2,701 candidates, of which 1,045 passed.
However, according to the 2021 budget, the Faculty of Law of Ghana plans to organize entrance exams for 2,200 applicants and admit 550 to the school of Law while 450 students should be called to the Bar. It also implies that looking at the 2020 numbers that students should expect 47.37% reduction in admissions at the law school and 18.03% decrease in the total number of students expected to be admitted to the Bar. This is very regressive, especially when the NPP Manifesto 2020 promises to “expand infrastructure and improve access to legal education”, in response to the challenges facing legal education in Ghana.
Conclusion and recommendations
In conclusion, the government must be aware of its obligation under the 1992 Constitution, in particular Article 37, paragraph I which provides the following: “The State strives to guarantee and protect a social order based on the ideals and principles of freedom, equality, justice, probity and responsibility as set out in Chapter 5 of this Constitution; and in particular, the State will orient its policy towards ensuring that every citizen enjoys equal rights, obligations and opportunities before the law. The provisions of the budget statement as they stand do not guarantee equal opportunities for all. The state must also have in mind Section 38, which imposes obligations on the state to provide educational institutions at all levels and in all regions of Ghana and to make these institutions available to all citizens and also to ensure equal access and to guarantee “ lifelong education ”
In view of the above, respectfully recommend that the Attorney General urgently submit a new bill to the House to replace the bill to amend the Legal Profession Bill of 2018 to achieve the aforementioned objective. – like the law on the legal profession, law 32 gives it to the prosecutor. General the power to give general policy direction to the General Legal Counsel to institute reforms. It will also be relevant for the Ghana Statistical Service to conduct a needs assessment of the lawyer / client ratio to ensure that Ghana is not lagging behind in a critical area such as the legal profession in Ghana – as more two-thirds of LL.B. holders are added to a back lock of potential lawyers each year.
As it stands, the budget only compounds the woes of law students in Ghana and does not inspire confidence in their future legal careers.
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Francis-Xavier Sosu is a private lawyer, human rights activist, deputy for Madina. The writer can be contacted via: [email protected]
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