Renewed tension is mounting within the corridors of the Ghana Law School as Bachelor of law students preparing to write this year’s entrance examination for admission into the school have accused both the authorities of the Ghana Law School and the Independent Examination Committee of the General Legal Council (GLC) of attempts to frustrate their efforts in seeking admission into the school this year.
The students said these two bodies are issuing conflicting and contradictory directives relating to the courses the students are expected to study for the purposes of this year’s entrance examination, scheduled for August 24, 2021.
Speaking in separate interviews with some of the candidates preparing to sit for the examination, they accused the Director of Ghana Law school, Maxwell Opoku Agyemang, of directing this year’s candidates to study only five courses for the entrance examination only for the Independent Examination Committee to come out about a month later, with guidelines directing the same students to study six courses for the said entrance examination.
The students contended that these clear contradictions coming from these authorities can only achieve at best one mission, and that is misleading the students, frustrating their efforts and subsequently giving birth to poor performance at the examination.
To justify the grounds for their anger and agitations, which the candidates claimed have been necessitated by the apparent attempts of the two bodies to cause mass failure in the coming exams as it happened over the years, one of the aggrieved students, who gave his name as John Adu Mensah, produced evidence of the alleged time table guidelines from the said Independent Examination Committee and a tape containing voice recordings of the Director of Ghana Law School.
In the said voice recordings, the Director, who was apparently speaking at the SRC Week/10th Anniversary celebration of the Kumasi campus of the Ghana Law School at KNUST last month entreated the students to centre their studies on five courses namely; Constitutional law, Contract Law, Law of Tort, Criminal Law and Ghana Legal System.
Mr. Agyemang was emphatic in his message to the students that Immovable Property Law, which used to be part of the courses for purposes of entrance examination will not be included in this year’s examination in view of the recent amendments of the Act governing Immovable Property law.
This position, as announced by the Director of Ghana Law School about a month ago was, however, sharply contradicted by the time table containing guidelines for the examination and released by the Independent Examination Committee of the General Legal Council.
The announcement as per the Committee is directing the students to study six courses such as Constitutional Law, Law of Tort, Criminal Law, Contract Law, Ghana Legal System and Immovable Property Law.
These contradictions, the students claimed do not only bring confusion emanating from unnecessary tension but it also speaks volumes of the intentions of the authorities regulating the legal profession in Ghana.
To avoid any protest against what the students described as ” ill-intended agenda” being perpetuated by Ghana Law School in collaboration with its affiliate bodies, the aggrieved students demanded clarifications from the appropriate authorities on the courses to be covered for the exams so as to enable the candidates prepare well in advance.
The candidates, especially those from the Law faculty of KNUST said the Director of Ghana Law School needs to clear the air and if possible apologize to the candidates if the guidelines he gave to the students were not guided by facts but an expression of his opinion.
The students told this newspaper that they are not only worried and concerned about the current state of affairs in relation to the ensuing conflicting guidelines to them as candidates but they are also equally mindful about the persistent confusion and controversies that usually characterise the Ghana Law School examination leading to far reaching repercussions on law students who want to be trained as lawyers in the country.
The students, some of whom chose to remain anonymous for fear of victimization, said the loud silence of the Director of Ghana Law School is unacceptable since the publication of the Committee’s guidelines contradicted his position thereby creating a bleak sea of circumstances within which the candidates will have to swim.
However, responding to the concerns raised by the aggrieved students in an interview with The Chronicle, the Director of the Ghana Law School, Maxwell Opoku Agyemang advised the candidates to follow the guidelines issued by the Independent Examination Council and ignore what he said earlier.
He said the Committee is the body responsible for organising entrance examination for students seeking to be enrolled into the law school.
He disclosed that as a Director of the Ghana Law School, he was only doing an advocacy for the number of courses to be reduced to five instead of six, but it is the Independent Examination Committee that takes the ultimate decision in relation to examination that the candidates are expected to write, adding that the Committee is the authorized examination body and whatever the body says concerning the courses to be examined is final and not what he said when addressing the students at KNUST.
He described as inappropriate the assertion that he does not work to promote the interest of students since available evidence suggests that he prioritizes students’ interest when making input to policies affecting students.
Meanwhile, following a legal suit by Professor Kwaku Asare and the public outcry, several reforms have since been pursued by the General Legal Council to address the growing concerns in the country’s legal profession.
From C. K. Clement, Kumasi
The post Confusion Rocks Ghana Law School Exams appeared first on The Chronicle Online.
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