Members of the National Association of Law Students (NALS) and others who were unable to get admission to the Ghana School of Law this year took to the streets today, Wednesday, October 20, 2021, to demand changes to Ghana’s legal education system.
The students had blamed their failure to obtain admission to the school on the General Legal Council (GLC).
They walked through several main streets of Accra before submitting a petition to Parliament.
In an interview , Michael Osei Koranteng, president of the law students at Zenith University College in Accra, said they are protesting because they think the GLC is intentionally preventing more students from obtaining legal education.
“This demonstration was organized by the National Association of Law Students in support of all 499 students who were denied admission because what affects your brother or sister also affects you. This thing has happened in the last two years, and it is still ongoing, and we can’t sit down and watch it.”
The pass mark for the entrance exams has traditionally been 50 percent in both sections, but the rule was reportedly altered for this year’s exams, so applicants had to achieve at least 50 percent in both sections before sailing through.
Some 499 of those who failed the exams claimed that they would have been admitted to the Ghana School of Law had it not been for the GLC’s new policy.
In a press release issued in September, the GLC said that 790 of the 2,824 students who took the 2021 entrance exams passed.
The aggrieved students, on the other hand, are dissatisfied with the policy, which is why they have decided to protest in order to put pressure on the appropriate authorities to change the legal education system.
Some of them carried banners that said, “Reform Legal Education Now, #We Need Total Reforms Now, GLC Is Not Above the Law.”
Other posters said, in part, “Justice for all 499 students and Open Legal Education Now.”
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