Inter Faculty Law Students Union
Ghana.
Dated 30/07/18.
Press Release.
Good day friends of the media, Deans of all Law Faculties, All Learning students of Ghana
We wish to bring to the attention of the media and all and sundry the unconscionable hardship, inconvenience and massive corruption being visited on law students of Ghana.
It is on the leakage of the exam papers written on Friday the 27th of July, 2018.
Now our issues are as follows;
- It was enough degrading for LLB graduates who applied to enrol to sit for entrance exams to get admission to Ghana School of Law.
Candidates realised to their uttermost surprise that BECE and WAEC answer booklets were written boldly on the answer booklets provided for use by students writing Ghana School of Law Entrance Exams, in the injunction to stop this very exam, the was rejected because a representative of the plaintiff signed the writ in lieu of the plaintiff himself. We are on the same reason as per the rejected writ in Asare v GLC and AG saying exams purported to be for law students writing to get admitted to GSL could not be written on BECE and WASCE booklets, we call for immediate annulment of the examination and the result thereof.
General Legal Council of all their illegalities and unconstitutional acts they engage in, do not have any independent examination Body of their own as they have made the public to believe
More so, it is very unprofessional and a smack of gross incompetence, ineptitude and unconscionable when they take ghc 450 from over 3000 applicants every year and always fail to organized organise credible exams both for entrance and final Bar Exams
With the money they siphon from students every year in the name of application forms and fees, they can’t even pride themselves of expansion of lecture halls for the past ten years to admit even 500 students every year whereas about 1000/students graduate annually.
Yet after admission, each student pays over ghc12,000 for just a year’s program and this is minus what foreign students pay(£6000) (per each post call student) when they have acquired the professional certificate elsewhere.
Our question is
Where does the money go?
Don’t they owe anyone any form of accountability? We are calling on EOCO, CHRAJ, Auditor General to intervene to conduct a criminal investigation into these matters.
Now in the latest development, Applicants entered the exams hall thoroughly searched.
No phones, foreign material or any recording gadget.
Students were allowed to enter the hall with the only pen because each student is provided with a pencil for marking the right answers.
They collected everything including the question papers from candidates after the exams.
About 24 hours before the exams, the exam questions were floating everywhere,
The question is who leaked the papers?
The interesting aspect is not just about the question paper being everywhere but the worse is;
- Question papers were leaked
- Answers were provided
- And the marking schemes were also provided and given to some students 24 hours before the exams.
For this is the highest level of corruption and we have lost trust in the General Legal Council and their so-called independent body.
We are calling on the Chief Justice Mrs. Gloria Akuffo, The President of the Republic of Ghana, HE Nana Akuffo Addo, Hon. AG.
- To use the legal process to dissolve General Legal counsel as they did to GFA, annul the entrance examination and rely on a renowned Ghanaian Lawyer based in US and a Professor named Kwaku Asare for an urgent alternative to provide time-tested Bar Certificate Program for all qualified LLB Holders. We attached to our write up his suggestions.
- Hopefully, this time our elected leaders will muster some courage to speak about the massive leakage in the so-called law school entrance examination.
And let us hope, for once, that poor students will not be called upon to be sacrificed for the ineptitude of the GLC and its so called Independent Examination Board.
I propose the following:
- Dissolve the GLC immediately;
- Cancel the leaked examination that should not have been held in the first place;
- Allow all students to take their professional courses in their Faculties, online or with private schools;
- Administer a “leak proof” qualifying exam to these students using the regular timetable (at the end of one year);
- Set up a Council of Legal Education to regulate the education of law professionals;
- Each accredited university should have a member on this Council, which will also have representatives from the dead GBA and the Superior Court;
- Go to Bar exams that test students on applying common law principles (torts, contracts, etc) not bookkeeping and conveyancing as is currently done;
- Let each LLB holder be eligible to apply for and take the leak-proof Bar exam.
It is time for our elected leaders to speak for the 1,800 powerless students rather than silently align with their powerful but incompetent buddies on the GLC.
Prof. Kwaku Asare
Copy: The President of The Republic Of Ghana. HE President Akuffo Addo.
Cc: Chief Justice Mrs. Gloria Akuffo.
BCC : AG. Ms Sofia Akuffo
BCC : All media houses.