The National Association of Law Students is optimistic that President Nana Akufo-Addo will receive the petition of its members in good faith and take steps in restructuring the country’s law educational system.
The law students and their thousands of sympathizers will today, Monday march to the presidency in a massive demonstration dubbed ‘#OpenUpLegalEducation’ to push for reforms to open up legal education in the country.
Speaking in an interview ahead of the demonstration, spokesperson for the group, Nii Senpe Adokwei Cudjoe said, the group is hopeful that the recent comments by some top government officials including the Chief Justice show that their demands will be met and acted upon accordingly.
“We believe that, the next point of call is to hit the street and call on the presidency to intervene in this matter. Every law in this country based on Article (58) is supposed to be implemented by the President. We believe that the Attorney General will fully be minded to say that there will be a change if there is enough advocacy.”
“The Chief Justice has also said that there are plans to put back the law village on the 2020 budget. That is a clear admission that, the capacity to admit the numbers has been an issue. We are beginning to realize that the consistent advocacy is beginning to expose the inconsistencies with the narrative that students are not studying or not good enough to where the issue truly is”, he added.
Many have argued that the annual mass failure recorded during the law school exams is a deliberate attempt of the Ghana School of Law which is the sole institution where professional lawyers are trained in the country to limit the number of professional lawyers in the country.
This has also accounted for series of protests and intensified calls for legal reforms to increase the number of lawyers trained each year.
We won’t change admission requirements – Chief Justice
But, Chief Justice Sophia Akuffo who will not bow to the public outcry has held that, the existing systems and structures for the training of lawyers in the country will not be changed because according to her, the current system that many deem as strict and unfair, is meant to ensure that lawyers who are trained in the country are of global standards.
Sophia Akuffo while applauding the effectiveness of the current legal education regime revealed that plans have been put in place to ensure that a larger campus is constructed outside Accra in the 2020 budget statement which is currently being prepared.
The Chief Justice was however quick to add that despite the expansion of infrastructure and appointment of more academic staff, the GLC will continue to uphold its commitment to ensure quality in the education of professional lawyers.
“The General Legal Council (GLC) continues in its quest to assure the people of this great republic the excellence in professional legal education and production of quality lawyers that they so well and dearly deserve. The position of the General Legal Council (GLC) remains that admission to the Ghana School of Law for professional legal education requires that successful candidates obtain a minimum rank of 50% in an entrance exam administered by the Independent Examination Committee,” she said.