Ghana’s Parliament has ordered Independent Examination Committee (IEC) to set questions from the subject manual as approved by The General Legal Council (GLC) to avert mass failure as recorded in 2017/2018 Professional Law Course Examination.
This, and other recommendations are contained in a report of The Committee on Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs on The Petition by Professional Law Students seeking review of the results of the 2017/2018 new Professional Law Course Examination.
The Committee noted that “once subject manuals were approved by the GLC and given to the professional law students, the IEC was expected to set the examination questions within the scope of those manuals”.
In that regard, the Committee urged the GLC to expedite its inquiry into the allegations and rectify any anomalies that the inquiry may reveal.
“This is required to be done as early as possible so that any such remedial action may reasonably be taken before this year’s enrolment”.
On the issues of late release of examination results, The Committee was informed by the law students and lecturers of the GSL that the IEC continued to release results late, with some as late as two days before enrolment, “in view of the tensions and trepidations students go through as a result of late release of results”, the Committee urged the IEC to ensure early marking and release of results at least one month prior to commencement of the mandatory internship.
The Committee therefore recommends to the IEC to consider adopting an off-site residential marking retreat to ensure speedy marking and release of examination results.
On Re-marking Fees, the Committee is of the view that the remarking fee of GH¢3,000.00 charged by the GLC to remark one paper is high and may deny students with legitimate basis to request for remarking.
Accordingly, “Committee implores the GLC to reduce the remarking fee and consider re-opening the period for remaking to allow the candidates who wrote the 2017/2018 Examinations to exercise that right”.
Below Is The Summary of the Professional Law Students Petition
In the petition, the professional law students expressed grief and disappointment over the mass failure recorded in the 2018 New Professional Law Course Examinations conducted by the IEC in June and October 2018.
They emphasised that the factors which caused the mass failure go beyond poor performance of students.
They partly attributed the mass failure to factors such as questions set outside the approved syllabus, disconnect between lecturers and the IEC and defects in the marking, recording and tallying of examination results.
They further complained about late release of results, high cost of remarking and difficulties encountered in the implementation of the repeat policy under LI 2355.
Based on the above issues, the professional law students sought the intervention of the House to review the results of the 2017/2018 New Professional Law Course Examinations.
In his ruling, The Speaker, Professor Aaron Mike Ocquaye recommended that, both the report the comments on the floor from members to to be forwarded to The Attorney-General Department, General Legal Council, Ghana School of Law and other relevant institutions for implementation.
Story by Edzorna Francis Mensah
