President of the National Association of Law Students, Asare Hassan has bemoaned the level at which aspiring lawyers are refused entry into the Ghana School of Law, regardless of having passed the entrance exam.
He believes it is not right for students to suffer from the Ghana School of Law’s inability to provide education to all successful applicants.
Speaking on the topic; ‘Legal Education in Ghana and Proposed Reforms’ on the Fact Sheet show with Samuel Eshun, he regarded proposed reforms as a mixed feeling. “I think it is a mixed feeling, sweet and sour. Sweet in that we see the end a period of struggling to get things done. It is sour because 499 students do not have the privilege of going to school not because they did not pass the entrance exam, but because somebody thinks they don’t have space or there is some form of limitation best known to them.”
Expressing sadness over the reality, he prays the proposed reforms take full effect and rectify the current situation on the ground.
Two minority Members of Parliament (MPs) are seeking an amendment to the Legal Profession Act, 1960, Act 32 to bring reforms to Ghana’s legal education. The MP for Madina, Francis Xavier-Sosu and his South Dayi counterpart, Rockson-Nelson Dafeamekpor, are set to file a Private Member’s Bill to this effect.
In their Memo to the Clerk of Parliament, the two lawmakers want the assistance of the legislative drafting office of Parliament to draft a Bill for them to exclude the Chief Justice and other Justices of the Supreme Court from the General Legal Council.
They also want a redefinition of the functions of the General Legal Council and to provide for reforms in legal education such that accredited Faculties of Law with the requisite facilities would be licensed to run professional law courses, and provide for discipline of lawyers and related matters to give effect to Article 37 (1) of the Constitution.
This proposed amendment is coming at a time when some 499 First Degree holders in Law who are alleged to have passed the Ghana School of Law entrance examination have been denied admission.