President Akufo-Addo has stated that his administration will not relent on its efforts in addressing the mass failure recorded during the bar exams.
According to him, he has already held talks with the Chief Justice to find a lasting solution to what has become an annual ritual.
[contextly_sidebar id=”fkvRg2lsMTgDlmklhSzigPUEkDpkcfHx”]At a meeting with leaders of the Ghana Bar Association this week, Nana Addo indicated that his government cannot fail to address the situation because it is ‘lucky’ to have renowned lawyers as heads of the Executive, the Legislature and the Judiciary.
“I’ve told the Chief Justice that we have to find a solution to the [law school exams results]. We are in a situation whereby three of the four principal officers of state are all lawyers. If in our time, the three arms of government are headed by lawyers, we are unable to find a solution to problems of our profession, for me, it will be a failure. This is something I have engaged myself with and I am waiting for the suggestions that will come from her but clearly, we need to do something about it. She has very good ideas, let’s wait for that between her and you which find a panacea to these issues.”
Nana Addo also indicated that the crucial role of lawyers in the socio-economic development of the country, cannot be taken for granted, hence he will use all means available to him to reverse this worrying trend.
“Part of the problem is the expectations. Despite all the attempts to vilify us, the profession is a popular one. People want to be lawyers because it’s an attractive profession and I take that as a compliment because they see the work of lawyers as valuable in terms of its contribution to social output. But we need to find the solution that will allow for continuity and peace in a manner that the results come”, he added.
The Ghana School of Law has over the years seen the majority of its students recording poor results in the bar exams.
This year, for instance, only nine percent of the students who sat for the exams passed their papers.
This situation has left lecturers, including Justices of the Supreme and Appeals Courts, together with some seasoned lawyers livid over what has been described as the worst Bar exam results recorded in the history of the school.
‘No conspiracies in law school exams, students’ failure genuine’ – Nana Addo
But, the President believes the alarming failure of students in the law school exams could be as a result of the students’ non-adherence to examination instructions.
Although he admitted that resources for more legal training are low, he said assertion that the high rate of failure is a deliberate attempt to cut down on the number of lawyers produced in the country is baseless.
Nana Addo dismissed claims of grade manipulation by a section of the Ghanaian public who insist that there appears to be a cabal working to ensure that the majority of the students do not pass the exams.
“So there is pressure on limited resources but it is difficult for people to understand. There is a sense that there are conspiracies to deny some people access. I think all of us have a big responsibility to put the facts out so that people in Ghana can understand that there are no conspiracies and that the results when they come out are perhaps failures of instructions of the pupils themselves and not necessarily because there is some sinister manipulation of the system.”
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By: Nii Larte Lartey | citinewsroom.com |Ghana | nlartelartey@gmail.com
