Law Students Want Akufo-Addo To Drop Illegal Entrance Exams Undertaking

The National Association of Law Students is calling on President Akufo-Addo to immediately direct the Attorney General (AG) to order the General Legal Council to withdraw what it termed as an illegal undertaking signed by law students which bars them from contesting results of entrance exams.

According to them, law students are forced to sign off their rights as a pre-requisite for admission into the law school.

Addressing the press, one of the leaders of the National Association of Law Students and SRC President at the Ghana Law School, Jonathan Alua noted that Nana Akufo-Addo’s order to the Attorney General will not contribute to any inference in the work of the judiciary of the country.

“This will not constitute an interference as the legal profession act vests the Minister of Justice the authority to do so. What we are saying is that the mere fact that the president directs the Attorney General and the Ministry of Justice to direct the General Legal Council as to a matter of policy and direction will not in itself constitute in any way interference in the work of the Judiciary and as you have already seen and heard the Judiciary is one distinct and separate body from the General Legal Council, the lines are not blurred because the lines of separation are very clear”.

“We are calling on the President to intervene by directing the Attorney General to order the General Legal Council to withdraw the illegal undertaking signed by students ahead of they taking the entrance examination. Students are forced to sign off their rights as a pre-requisite to clearance for entrance into the Ghana School of Law. So, what this means is that if you do not sign that I do hereby acknowledge that I do not have any right to contest these results then your admission will not go through and you will not even be given the chance to write the entrance exam”.

Close to a thousand law students in the country and sympathizers on Monday embarked on a demonstration exercise to demand reforms in the country's legal education system.

The protest which was dubbed #OpenUpLegalEducation ended in violence as protestors were dispersed with water cannons and rubber bullets when they attempted to march to the Jubilee house.

Their demonstration was on the back of the recent failure recorded at the Ghana School of law where only 128 students out of the 1,820 candidates who sat for this year's entrance exams passed.

---citinewsroom