The aggrieved 499 law students, who were denied admission, despite passing the 2021 Ghana School of Law entrance exam, have appealed to President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to intervene.
The students said their supposed failure was a travesty of justice, a situation that should be corrected immediately.
At a press conference in Accra on Monday, October 18, they said “on 15th October, 2021, we petitioned the Office of the President, appealing to His Excellency to use his Executive authority to come to our aid, in our quest for justice and to vindicate our fundamental human rights as enshrined in Chapter 5 of the 1992 Constitution of our dear country. As we speak, we are yet to receive a response from the high office of the President.
“We are nonetheless confident that President Akufo-Addo, who, for all intent and purposes, has proven to be a renowned human right lawyer and freedom fighter, would rise to the occasion and do justice to our legitimate grievances. We appeal to the President, who also happens to be a member in permanent good standing at the bar, to cause his official Representative on the GLC, the Attorney-General, Godfred Yeboah Dame Esq, who is clothed with powers under the Legal Profession Act, 1960 (Act 32), to order the General Legal Council and for that matter the Ghana School of Law, to comply with their own rules of engagement and within the confines of the law, by admitting the remaining 499 candidates who passed the entrance exams. This, respectfully, is not too much to ask for, Your Excellency. It is the reason why we voted for you, and we humbly beseech you to do exactly that.”
Their statement added that “even more bizarre is the fact that, most of us in the 499 group obtained higher marks than some of the admitted candidates in the 790 supposed passed list. For instance, how can you explain why a candidate who obtains more than 60% in an exam is deemed to have failed and therefore not eligible for admission whereas another candidate who obtains 50% in the same exams is deemed to have passed and therefore offered admissions? Such logic! This certainly can only be one of the wonders of the world, and can only happen in the lexicon of the Ghana School of Law.
“If this arbitrary and capricious exercise of discretionary power is not checked, we shouldn’t be surprised if next year, the GLC tells us that candidates must obtain more than 70% in the entrance exams to be deemed to have passed. Well, like every well-meaning Ghanaian, we are unable to accept this travesty of justice, and we make a passionate appeal for the reversal of this manifest injustice, for the love of God and Country.
“It must also be emphasized that the IEC/GLC and for that matter, the Ghana School of Law has always maintained that, their inability to admit more students for the professional law programme has absolutely nothing to do with inadequate lecture facilities or staff. In other words, they have always told the whole world that the reason why they are unable to admit more candidates is that the candidates were just not passing the entrance exam (securing the minimum 50% pass mark) and that, they had always made provision for huge intake. “Indeed, when in 2019, 128 were said to have passed which development generated some eyebrow, the school responded that the Candidates just failed to cross the 50% pass mark, and that, the school had made provision for huge intake that year.
“For instance, a member of the GLC at the time, Joseph Kpemka Esq., who was then a deputy AG, informed the whole world, on Joy Fm Newsfile that, the GLC/GSL, in anticipation of huge intake that year, rented a lecture facility at the University for Professional Studies (UPSA) Accra. And so, according to him, the authorities were even disappointed that despite their commitment to increasing enrolment, the overwhelming majority of the candidates could just not secure the required 50% pass mark. Fortunately, this year, 2021, as many as 1,289 candidates passed the exams. This should be good news for the authorities as they can make use of the UPSA facility, and probably even rent more facilities if need be. Why is the story rather different today? What is good for the 2019 candidates is certainly also good for us, the 2021 candidates.
“When in 2020, some 1045 candidates passed the entrance exams, they were all admitted owing to the ingenuity of the GSL, particularly its acting director, Maxwell Opoku-Agyemang, who introduced a triple track system. If in 2020, the GSL could be this ingenious and innovative, then in 2021 with the benefit of hindsight, the GSL under its current director, Kwesi Prempeh – Eck, has no excuse but to demonstrate more ingenuity and innovation. We refuse to believe that the huge intake witnessed last year has anything to do with the general elections because we trust our leaders.”
Some two thousand LLB candidates who sat for the 2020/2021 academic year Ghana School of Law 2021 Entrance Exams failed in the exam.
Out of students from the various law faculties across the country who sat for the exam, only 790 passed representing approximately 28% while the failure represents 72%.
The GLC, the body in charge of legal education in Ghana, has come under fire for this development, especially since it applied new directives requiring candidates to pass 50% in each of the two sections A and B in the exam, a rule that did not exist prior to the examination.