Ghana School of Law can run shift system – lecturer

A lecturer at the Central University Law Faculty has suggested the Ghana School of Law could consider a shift system which will enable it to admit more students for legal education.

Yaw Oppong said the current system undermines the country’s interest because it makes it impossible for more students to be enrolled for the law programme.

‘If all the citizens want to become lawyers, it is the duty of the state to provide them with legal education,’ the private legal practitioner said on Joy FM/MultiTV’s Saturday news analysis program, Newsfile.

Related Article: Supreme Court ‘quashes’ Ghana School of Law admission process

The admission process of the Ghana School of Law came under scrutiny last Thursday once again after Supreme Court declared it “unconstitutional.”

The case was filed by US-based Ghanaian Professor Stephen Kwaku Asare who argued the ceiling placed on admission of students into the school is “grossly unfair.”

The School requires applicants to sit for an examination after which an interview session is held to select students who will excel.

The apex court in a unanimous decision said the School’s admission system contradicts the requirements stated in the Legislative Instrument (L.I) 1296 which guards admission into the school.

The L.I requires an applicant to have passed specific seven subjects during the LL.B programme, be of good behavior and should hold an LL.B degree in order to be considered for admission into the Ghana School of Law.

The court directed the school to either put in place a quota system for its accredited institutions or have its current system sanctioned by Parliament within the next six months.

It, however, said the ruling will not affect the ongoing admission process for the 2017/18 academic year, a development many have described as confusing.

Mr Oppong had earlier told Joy News he would have been happy if the court had completely scrapped the admission process of the Ghana School of Law entirely to make way for more students.

He told Newsfile host, Samson Lardy Anyenini Saturday, it is in the interest of the country to have more lawyers since there is currently a deficit.

The law lecturer said the School’s main campus located at Makola in Accra could admit more than 800 students if it were to adopt the shift system and its satellite campuses will also accept more students than they are currently doing.

Story by Ghana | Myjoyonline.com |