Passage of Controversial Entrance Exam Bill Sad – Law Students

The Concerned Law Students have described the passage of the controversial legal profession regulation Bill 2018 as “sad”.

Parliament Friday passed the bill despite strong protest from both the Minority and Majority side of the House.

The bill among other things, states that the General Legal Council will conduct an entrance exam for the admission of students to the school.

The Bill was laid in Parliament in mid—December 2017 after the Supreme Court ruled that the decision to regulate admissions through exams and interviews was illegal. The court consequently ordered the GLC to put in place a legal regime backing the decision.

Before the report of the Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs and Subsidiary Legislation Committees was put to a voice vote, the House was thrown into turmoil as chairmen of the joint committee were booed as they presented their recommendation for the approval.

Reacting to the passage of the Bill, the leader of the Concerned Law Students, Ken Addo Donkor said the move spells a bleak picture for the country’s legal system.

“I feel so said and I fear for my country. If my country Ghana could be ran this way,” he told Starr News’ Parliamentary Correspondent Ibrahim Alhassan.

He added: “…You could see clearly that the people we put in Parliament to represent our interest, the majority spoke and that was to be the voice of the voiceless—but finally what did we see—we saw a different result.

“But I think we are practicing democracy, is that what we call democracy? No!”

They thus vowed to fight the decision until it is reversed.

The committees led by Bawku Central MP Mahama Ayariga and Ben Abdallah last week agreed to the contentious request by the GLC to conduct entrance exams for law students. It, however, rejected the conduct of interviews as part of the admission process.

Circumstances surrounding legal education and admission into the Ghana school of Law have become topical after only 91 students out of the 474 who sat for the bar exams passed to be called to the bar. A total of 206 law students are to repeat the entire course whilst another 177 students have been referred in one or two papers.

The Speaker of Parliament Mike Oquaye was to blame for the passage of the bill, according to Minority Chief Whip Muntaka Mubarak.

“Everybody sees how terrible the Speaker is taking decisions in the House,” he told Ibrahim.

Source: Starrfmonline