Law exam failures: Kpebu punches GLC over retrospective application of rule

Private legal practitioner, Martin Kpebu, has criticised the General Legal Council (GLC) for applying a rule it set after the 2020/2021 law school entrance examination.

Mr. Kpebu stated that the GLC which is made up of the best of the best lawyers in the country is aware that retrospective application of rules or orders has very limited space in Ghana hence, they should not have applied it in the examination.

His comments come after two thousand LLB candidates who sat for the 2020/2021 academic year Ghana School of Law 2021 Entrance Exams failed in the exams.

Students from the various law faculties across the country who sat for the exam, only 790 of them passed representing approximately 28% while the failure represents 72%.

The GLC, the body in charge of legal education in Ghana has come under fire for this development especially it applied new requiring candidates to pass 50% in each of the two sections A and B in the exam, a rule that did not exist prior to the examination.

Speaking on the Key Points onTV3/3FM on Saturday, October 9 with Dzifa Bampoh, Mr. Kpebu said “I am hoping that they will do the needful.

“It is quite embarrassing but it is part of our development process so now that they are coming under a lot of heat I am sure they will do the needful.”

The GLC has been petitioned by the Student Representative Council of the Law School to relook into this matter.

Regarding the petition, Mr. Kpebu said “The petition, as far as I understand was presented a few days ago so let us give at least a week then we will see whether they will do the needful because it is quite embarrassing.

“It is shocking that a candidate must pass both section A and B was not introduced before they went into the exams. For us as lawyers, it is quite a bit tacky that the best of lawyers in the country will sit and then introduce the rule after the exams, it doesn’t look tidy at all but because the petition is before them we will want to be a bit circumspect and expect that they do the needful.

“The best of the best sit on the GLC and yet this simple thing that we know, you can’t make a rule after the event and ask that the rule should retrospectively affect the event, no. So far, in our constitution, it is only when it comes to public finances that it is allowed that the government can spend ahead and then later go to parliament for a budget appropriation bill to be passed to make it legal.

“Besides that, it is not the norm to pass a rule after the event, so I am sure they will look at it otherwise it will make them look bad.”