The First Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Joseph Osei Owusu, has directed the General Legal Council to admit all law students who obtained a pass mark of 50% in the Law School Entrance Examination into the Law School.
The First Deputy Speaker gave the ruling today,Friday after Members of Parliament heavily criticised management of the Ghana Law School and the General Legal Council for the continuous frustration of students seeking admission into the Ghana School Law School to be trained as professional lawyers.
499 law students who wrote the entrance examination for admission into the Law School were denied admission despite obtaining at least 50 percent in the entrance examination.
The Deputy Majority Leader and MP for Efutu constituency, Alexander Afenyo-Markin who raised the issue on the floor of Parliament criticised the Ghana Law School and the General Legal Council of making the study of law in the country frustrating and unattractive through the questionable marking scheme set up for the Law School Entrance Exams.
Hon. Afenyo-Markin therefore moved a motion for Parliament to compel the Ghana Law School and the General Legal Council to admit all students who passed the entrance exams.
The Minority Whip and MP for Asawase, Mubarak Muntaka described the challenge of gaining admission into the Law school as a matter of public interest which is very worrying.
He, therefore, called for a probe by Parliament into the matter.
After the discussion by the House on the issue and the motion moved by Hon Afenyo-Markin, the First Deputy Speaker who chaired proceedings of the House put the question on the matter and subsequently gave the ruling that all the law students who passed the entrance exams should be admitted into the Ghana Law School for the 2021/2022 academic year.
No space for 499 students at Ghana Law School
The 499 Law school students who had attained the 50 per cent threshold in the Ghana Legal Council (GLC) examinations yet had been denied admissions are unlikely to be admitted anytime soon.
This is because there’s no space at the Ghana School of Law to contain them, President Akufo-Addo said.
He noted that the situation is rather unfortunate as the problem has been a persisting one.
“For the time being, there’s no space in the Law School for them, and this is a problem. There are several others before them who unfortunately fell into the same pit. It may be that this group has decided to be more vocal than their predecessors,” he said in an interview with Kwami Sefa Kayi on Peace FM's 'kokrokoo' programme.
The President explained that it is not in the country’s best interest to keep the gates of the Ghana School of Law closed.
“I think it’s a decent, reasonable expectation; I will not run away from it. I think it’s a reasonable expectation to see that this is a good moment for these matters to be resolved, and all I can say is that God willing, by the time I come back here the next year, substantial progress will be made in trying to deal with this.
“It’s unfortunate, I can’t pretend that this is a happy coincidence for me at all, on the contrary, I’m very disturbed by it, and I’m hoping that soon the cooperation of the various stakeholders, the Ghana Legal Council, the Chief Justice himself, Attorney General and myself, we’ll all find a solution to this situation,” he said.
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