By Bubu Klinogo & Yvonne Asare Ofei
Parliament has by unanimous decision passed a resolution directing the General Legal Council and the Ghana School of Law to admit every student who obtained the 50 % pass mark in the 2021 Ghana School of Law Entrance Examination as advertised prior to the Examination. This implied that all the 499 students who have been denied admission into the school must be admitted at all cost.
Law School Full
President Akufo-Addo recently commented that there was no space to accommodate the aggrieved 499 law students who were denied admission into the Ghana School of Law.
His comments came 24 hours after the aggrieved students demonstrated and presented a petition to parliament and the Presidency
President Akufo Addo admitted the concerns, but added that the school cannot be forced to admit all students.
Background
On Wednesday, October 20, aggrieved candidates, as well as their sympathizers, who sat for the 2021 Ghana School of Law Entrance Examination, hit the streets to register their concerns over how some 499 candidates were denied entrance.
The protest organized by the National Association of Law Students (NALS) dubbed ‘Red Wednesday’, accused the General Legal Council (GLC) of intentionally failing a chunk of the candidates because of a new quota system.
The controversies over the mass failure in the Ghana School of Law Entrance Examination are a result of the GLC’s decision to apply a new rule requiring candidates to obtain a pass of 50% in each of the two sections, namely A and B.
Appeals
Ghana School of Law, Students Representative Council had earlier called on the General Legal Council to reconsider its decision to admit 499 candidates into Ghana School of Law in accordance with a legitimate expectation of 50% pass mark.
The student representative body argued that they have finished auditing the raw score of all candidates who took part in the Entrance Examination and they have extracted about 449 students that are equally qualified to be admitted into Ghana School of Law without further delay.
According to Wonder Victor Kutor, the SRC President at the News Conference on the ‘Ghana School of Law Entrance Examination Results and matters arising submitted that, “it is unfair to law students to be treated in such an unfair manner and it goes against all detects of our constitutional democracy. Especially at the time the three arms of Government: The President, The Chief Justice and The Speaker are headed by astute lawyers and we know that lawyers are trained to be the vanguard of the Constitution”.
It is against this background “the SRC had respectfully called on the General Legal Counsel to reconsider its decision which we deem unfair, and they must reconsider and admit 449 candidates’ for peace to prevail, “we are keeping our card to our chest.
Attorney General delays case
Meanwhile, Correspondent Yvonne Asare-Ofei reports that the Attorney General has asked the Human Rights Division of the Accra High Court for a short time to file certain processes pertaining to the suit filed by the aggrieved students of the Ghana School of Law.
Assistant State Attorney Patricia Ayirebi Acquah told the Court that she had spoken to the lawyers for the applicants and the Ghana Legal Council, GLC and they have both agreed. Lawyer for the applicants Martin Kpebu and Lawyer Nana Yaw Ntrekwa for the GLC confirmed to the Court. Lawyer Kpebu said his clients have suffered irreparable damage already but they will oblige the request. The Court presided over by Justice Nicholas Mensah Abodakpi however adjourned the case to the 9th of next November.
The aggrieved students have filed an application for interlocutory injunction pursuant to Order 25 of CI 47. The plaintiffs are seeking an order to compel respondents to offer applicants admission into the Ghana School of Law for the 2021/2022 academic year. They are also asking the court to further restrain the respondents from treating the applicants as students who failed the said Examination. Among the reliefs sought, the students say, that the 50% pass mark had been communicated publicly to Ghanaians over the years. Again, a former Chief Justice of Ghana, Sophia Akuffo, articulated the policy of 50% mark unambiguously to the world at the 2019 call to the bar.
In May 2021, the former Acting Director of the GSL also reiterated the pass mark of 50% at an SRC week celebration held in KNUST, Kumasi. According to GBC’s Court Correspondent Yvonne Asare Ofei the aggrieved students thronged the court premises in their black and white uniform. They however remained calm before and after court proceedings.
