Outrage as 81% of Ghana law school students fail exams

Law students in Ghana’s sole legal training institution have protested a mass failure in their recent professional examination.

Figures from the Ghana School of Law 2017/2018 final exams indicated that only 91 students (representing 19%) out of the 474 candidates passed.

206 students failed the exams outrightly whiles the remaining 177 were referred in a number of subjects. The situation threatens their dreams to be called to the bar this year.

Student leadership in a press conference earlier this week protested the results and demanded that an independent body remarks the scripts. According to them, the school’s Independent Examinations Body (IED) lacked diligence and integrity.

“We think that the Independent Examinations Body had not been diligent in their duties in the marking of our results,” Students Representative Council (SRC) president Sammy Gyamfi told the state-owned Daily Graphic.

“We think the IED is an inefficient, ineffective, illegal and amorphous body, which does not have the competence to conduct professional examinations for professional legal students in Ghana,” he stressed.

The GSL is currently the only institution that provides training for law graduates in the Barrister at Law programme. The mass failure comes at a time the legislature is seeking to legalise an entry exam and interview for persons seeking admission into the school.

Meanwhile, a lawmaker and lawyer, Inusah Fuseini, has told the students to head to the court for redress if they feel their rights have been violated. According to him, press conferences will not take them far in seeking redress.