Infrastructure expansion not solution to Ghana’s legal education – Prof Asare

Gertrude Ankah Education Aug - 24 - 2020 , 18:11

US-based Ghanaian law lecturer, Professor Kwaku Asare says expansion in infrastructure is not the solution to Ghana’s legal education challenges.

According to him, the New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) approach to tackling challenges with legal education in Ghana show the lack of seriousness on the part of the government in dealing with the issue.

“It is kind of surprising that after eight years, the solution they were able to come up with in their manifesto was one line talking about legal infrastructure. It connotes a lack of seriousness. We do not really see the problem”, he said.

The Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia promised to expand infrastructure to increase access to professional legal education at the NPP’s 2020 manifesto launch at the University of Cape Coast in the Central Region on Saturday.

But Prof. Asare said breaking the monopoly created for professional legal education to be administered by the Ghana School of Law is the best approach to resolving these challenges and not infrastructure expansion.

“I have made it clear in so many instances. There is already an infrastructure in place. The thing that is stopping them now is a law promulgated by the General Legal Council that says that only the Ghana School of Law can offer professional legal education. The law faculty can deliver the legal education that they are talking about.”

Professor Asare also said the General Legal Council must be scrapped and replaced with an independent regulatory agency to regulate law education in Ghana.

He has consistently stated that the General Legal Council has departed from its duty of providing persons with law degrees the opportunity to pursue professional education and is instead restricting them.

The Supreme Court recently dismissed a legal action he filed to challenge the status of the Ghana School of Law (GSL) as the only institution mandated to offer professional law programme in the country.