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Mr. Wonder Victor Kutor (middle), SRC President of the Ghana School of Law, addressing the press. With him include Mrs. Fauziya Tijjani (left), Vice-President of the SRC
Mr. Wonder Victor Kutor (middle), SRC President of the Ghana School of Law, addressing the press. With him include Mrs. Fauziya Tijjani (left), Vice-President of the SRC

Admit 499 students to law school— SRC President

The Students Representative Council (SRC) of the Ghana School of Law (GSL) has thrown its weight behind calls for the General Legal Council (GLC), the body responsible for regulating legal education and the legal profession in the country, to admit some 499 students who have been denied admission to the professional school.

The President of the student body, Mr. Wonder Victor Kutor, said an audit conducted by the SRC on the 2,824 candidates who sat for the entrance examination revealed that the school should have admitted a total of 1,289 students rather than the 790 students who were deemed to have gained admission.

Making a case for the 499 students at a news conference in Accra yesterday, Mr. Kutor said some of the students obtained more than 50 per cent cumulatively in marks, adding that “they ought not to have been deemed as failed”.

“We call on the GLC to reconsider its decision and to consider the 499 candidates as eligible for admission into the GSL,” he said.

He further revealed that the SRC would submit the names of the 499 students to the GLC through the Director of Legal Education at the School of Law for consideration.

Context

As far as this year’s entrance examination is concerned, a student must score 50 per cent of the cumulative mark in both sections A and B, which is made up of 40 and 60 marks respectively.

It is the case of the SRC that the 499 who had 50 per cent or more cumulatively must be admitted whether or not they met the 50 per cent threshold in each of sections A and B.

He added that last year, out of the 2,700 students who sat for the entrance exam, 1,245 of them gained admission simply because they met the 50 per cent threshold irrespective of their marks in sections A and B.

The SRC President said the GLC was not fair to the students when it denied the 499 students admission on grounds that the students could not score 50 per cent in each of the sections because the review of the regulation bordering on the pass mark was not communicated to the students who sat for the examination this year.

“The three arms of government are headed by legal practitioners, and it is unfair for law students to be treated in such an unfair manner, and this goes against the dictates of our constitutional democracy,” he added.

A-G, Parliament

The SRC president further called on the Attorney-General (A-G) and Parliament to state their positions on the matter which had attracted public attention.

He called on the GLC not to use inadequate infrastructure as an excuse to deny applicants admission to the professional school.

He noted that if the students were denied admission because of infrastructural constraints, the school had an option of renting spaces to accommodate students who met the threshold.

Reacting to issues affecting current students of the GSL, Mr. Kutor said the practice where students who passed three papers and failed three papers were deemed to have completely failed all the six papers must be reviewed.

“Let them go to the next stage and rewrite the papers they failed. You cannot let them write what they have passed already,” he added.

He further appealed to management to release the examination results on time to enable the professional law students to prepare financially for the semester.

 

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