The Member of Parliament for the Madina constituency, Francis-Xavier Sosu, has disclosed that some Members of Parliament are considering a Private Members’ Bill that will address challenges with legal education in Ghana.
According to him, the Attorney General must take action to restructure and expand access to legal education in Ghana.
Speaking with the legislator said he wants the General Legal Council to be dissolved as one of the measures to address the challenges with legal education in Ghana.
“It is time for us to open up the law school, and we really have to start that with the admission of the 499 students. We need to redo things, otherwise, we are failing. It is a big shame that this problem recurs every year, and we allow this to fester. It means we are not moving forward as a people…. [We need] a complete dissolution of the GLC and to replace these old ways of doing things,” he said.
“I and some other colleagues are working to explore the possibility of introducing a Private Members Bill if it will take a longer time to address this,” he added.
On Wednesday, members of the National Association of Law Students (NALS) and some LLB graduates who couldn’t make it into the Ghana School of Law this year hit the streets to demand reforms in Ghana’s legal education regime.
The students blamed the General Legal Council (GLC) for their inability to gain admission to the school this year.
The pass mark for the entrance exams has always been 50% in both sections, but for this year’s exams, the rule was allegedly changed, so candidates had to score at least 50% in both sections before sailing through.
Some 499 candidates who were part of those who failed the exams insisted that they would have gained access to the Ghana School of Law if not for the new policy introduced by the GLC.
This has sparked conversations about the need for urgent reforms.
According to Francis-Xavier Sosu, who joined the demonstration, the 499 candidates “have a legitimate concern that we all need to push.”
