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28.06.2010 Education

School of Law set up campuses at Legon, KNUST

28.06.2010 LISTEN
By Daily Graphic


The Ghana School of Law is to set up campuses at the Law Faculties of the University of Ghana and the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) as part of efforts to expand facilities to accommodate the large number of students entering the school at Makola in Accra.

Students who would be admitted at Legon and KNUST would study professional law and, therefore, study the same subjects and write the same examination as those attending school at Makola.

The Director of the Ghana School of Law, Major (Retd) George A. Sarpong, made this known at the third annual Lady Chief Justice's Mentoring Programme in Accra last Thursday.

He Said last year, the school had to struggle with how to accommodate 450 students coming from Legon, KNUST and those that pursued their courses outside the country, explaining that the school could only accommodate 200.

He said the school, therefore, had to adopt a quota system of 80, 80 and 40 to accommodate the students.

Six senior high schools participated in the mentoring programme aimed at offering students of senior high schools the opportunity to interact with members of the Bench, Bar and the Judicial Service.

The schools, two from the Eastern Region and four from the Volta region were: the Somanya Senior High School, Ghana Senior High School, Ola Girls Senior High School, Sogakope Senior High School, Mawuli Senior High School and Keta Senior High School.

This year's event which is the third, involves students observing court proceedings at the Commercial Court, Fast Track Court, Land and Commercial Crimes Courts, Family and Juvenile Tribunals, as well as Gender Based Courts, as well as a tour of the Judicial Service.

Major (Retd) Sarpong told the students that it took a lot of hard work and dedication to pursue the law profession.

Opening the event, the Chief Justice, Mrs. Georgina Wood, said the idea of the programme was not only to introduce the students to the legal profession but the entire judiciary process.

She reminded them that the Judiciary was the third arm of Government after the Executive and the Legislature, adding that the programme was to make them meet practising lawyers and listen to judges.

She told the students that the programme was an opportunity for them to make suggestions that would help the judiciary, as well as advance the rule of law and good governance in the country.

Giving an overview of the programme, Her Ladyship, Mrs. Justice Margaret Welbourne, said the programme was introduced three years ago to expose students to the processes of accessing justice and promoting the rule of law.

"Once we succeed in sensitising the youth about the Judiciary and create in them a sense of aspiration to be part of the promotion of the rule of law, then we can be assured of the sustainability of the rule of law in Ghana," she said.

The first programme, she said, was held for students from the Upper West Region, while the second was held for students from the Greater Accra Region.

Justice Welbourne expressed the hope that the 2010 programme would go a long way to widen the scope of understanding of the youth in matters concerning the rule of law.

The topics the students were taken through included the role of the Judiciary in the governance of Ghana and the role of the Commission on' Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) in the administration of justice in Ghana.






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