Stop the injustice now - Kwamena Duncan blasts Ghana School of Law

Former Central Regional Minister, Kwamena Duncan, has kicked against the decision of the Ghana School of Law to refuse admission of 499 students who passed their entrance exams.

Some two thousand LLB candidates who sat for the Ghana School of Law entrance exams this year failed in the exams.

Only 790 of the students passed representing approximately 28%, while 72% representing those who failed.

New Rules

The General Legal Council (GLC), the body in charge of legal education in Ghana, and the Ghana School of Law (GSL) have come under fire for this development.

They are intensely criticized for not only failing the thousands of students but also for applying new rules requiring candidates to pass 50% in each of the two sections A and B of the exam subjects; a rule that didn't exist prior to the examination and for which the 499 students have been denied admission into the school.

There are reports of some students attaining over 60 percent mark in the examination but not admitted over management's explanation that the students didn't get the required mark as per the new rules, although they passed their exams.

Aggrieved Students' Demands

The irate students have called for a rescission of the decision, stating during a press conference on Monday, October 18; “Even more bizarre is the fact that, most of us in the 499 group obtained higher marks than some of the admitted candidates in the 790 supposed passed list.

“For instance, how can you explain why a candidate who obtains more than 60% in an exam is deemed to have failed and therefore not eligible for admission whereas another candidate who obtains 50% in the same exams is deemed to have passed and therefore offered admissions? Such logic! This certainly can only be one of the wonders of the world, and can only happen in the lexicon of the Ghana School of Law.

“If this arbitrary and capricious exercise of discretionary power is not checked, we shouldn’t be surprised if next year, the GLC tells us that candidates must obtain more than 70% in the entrance exams to be deemed to have passed. Well, like every well-meaning Ghanaian, we are unable to accept this travesty of justice, and we make a passionate appeal for the reversal of this manifest injustice, for the love of God and Country.''

No Sense In GSL Decision

Addressing the issue during Peace FM's morning show 'Kokrokoo', Kwamena Duncan described the Ghana School of Law's decision as "senseless".

To him, it shouldn't matter which sections of the subjects a student managed to get high scores to pass the exam.

He held that it's ridiculous for the authorities to deny the students entry into the school on the basis of the new rule, particularly when a student have attained the passed mark.

''You who are doing this, you have a question to answer some day. We don't live like this in the world. Are you saying that you cannot innovative that you will be able to hire premises to add up to what you have and the young people are ready. They are ready to pay for. There is no sense in it!'', he exclaimed.

He supported the student's call for a reversal of the decision stressing ''I cannot see how I can go to the face of the law and seeking for justice and this is something which is lingering, and nobody is seeking to give justice in this matter''.

''I cannot see; I cannot find justice anywhere. That somebody goes to write an examination, you don't tell him the rules. He knows the rule is that I must get my 50. The person goes to write the exams, he scores 61; then you spring something on him that, look, you must have half of that, half of that.''