GBA calls for calm among protesting law students

The Ghana Bar Association (GBA) has called for calm among agitated law students pushing for reforms in the country's legal education system.

Hundreds of law students and members of the public hit the streets yesterday, Monday to demand for change in a demonstration dubbed #OpenUpLegalEducation.

The protesters were prevented from marching to the Jubilee House to present a petition to the President.

The protest followed the recent mass failure at the Ghana School of Law entrance examination where only 128 students out of the 1,820 candidates who sat for this year's entrance exams passed.

Addressing the students after receiving a petition from the students, the GBA President; Anthony Forson Jr., said the students will be updated after various stakeholder engagements on their demands.

He noted that it may be necessary to expand capacity to increase intake.

“Quality should not be compromised. So long as we all agree, then all we have to do is to ensure that those who control the purse make sure that the facilities are expanded by training people to be able to train [lawyers].”

Meanwhile, the General Secretary of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Johnson Asiedu Nketiah, who has backed calls for reform in the country's legal education, insisted that the standards should not be lowered.

This is in line with comments made by Chief Justice Sophia Akuffo who has maintained that quality will not be compromised on.

“I am not calling for huge numbers without an eye on quality. I am aware, also that, in every profession, there is the need to maintain some market premium which can be diluted if the numbers are too huge.”