Law Student Takes Battle To Prez Mills

The Ghana School of Law is under pressure to defend its reputation after one of its students fired a strong-worded petition to the office of President Atta Mills and that of the Chief Justice alleging that some lecturers at the school have vowed to fail some 70 students even if they pass their examination with distinction. �Some lecturers at the Law School have taken the law into their own hands and fail students either deliberately or intentionally; they take pride in failing students�moreover the Teaching Assistant made it clear to us in class that looking at our number, which was a little over 170, he will make sure that 70 students fail that very paper�, Mary Ohenewaa Afful stated in her three-paged petition. The aggrieved female student started crying foul after the school failed to release the results of about 75 students who called for the re-marking of an examination paper they had been referred in. The refusal to publish the results of the re-marked scripts has heightened tension in the school as the affected students will not be allowed to partake in the October 2nd graduation ceremony where their colleagues will be called to the Bar unless the said results are published before the said date. The students have also alleged that the re-marked scripts have new marks which would qualify them for graduation but the school is refusing to release the results so as not to embarrass the set of lecturers that marked the scripts at the first instance. Sources at the administration hinted to Daily Guide that many of the students that were failed had pass marks after protesting and called for re-marking. The sources however explained that publishing the new results would indict some of the lecturers. A compromise has thus been reached to publish the new results at a time when the brochure for the October 2nd programme has already been compiled. Consequently, affected students will have to wait till March next year so they are called to the Bar with the next batch of graduates. Reports from the school say there is a popular belief that some lecturers tend to victimize students who are either too vocal, linked to political parties, or female students who refuse to give in to their advances. Mary Ohenewaa Afful, in her petition to the Chief Justice Georgina Wood, President Atta Mills and the Chief of Staff, begged for their assistance to get the re-marked scripts published. The petition noted further; �Nobody is telling us anything and this means we have been victimized�Last year the Law of Evidence Lecturer, Mr. Mawxell Opoku Agyemang failed the same number of students [70], and this shows that those two lecturers are just frustrating the lives of the students at the Law School. �They have succeeded in frustrating my life and I would wish that a committee be set up to investigate why students fail those papers�Mr. Albert Adaare, the Teaching Assistant spends two hours during tutorials, and in those two hours, he uses 30 minutes to praise himself that during his time he was the best student and all that; 15 minutes to insult his seniors at the Bar including his seniors at the Law School; 15 minutes to mark the register and then another 15 minutes to use strong and abusive language in class and the rest of the period to ask questions one by one amidst fear, intimidation and embarrassment�, Mary Ohenewaa Afful noted in her petition.