The Member of Parliament for Madina Constituency, Francis -Xxavier Sosu, has formally petitioned the Speaker of Parliament, Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin, to task the Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Committee to look into the results of the entrance exams into the Ghana School of Law.
Last week, results from the recently written entrance exams saw about 72 percent failing to gain admission into the country’s only professional law training school.
Conducted by the General Legal Council (GLC), the exams have seen more failures despite a recent revelation that many get over 50 percent of the total marks.
Mr Sosu, a lawyer by profession, expressed concerns about the rate of passes.
“The 28 percent pass in this year’s admissions into the Ghana School of Law represents a systemic problem that must be of concern to all Democracy watchers, Parliament as an institution, and everyone who believes in equality and fairness before the law as a critical component to the creation of a free and fair society with ample opportunities for everyone,” he stated in his petition dated Tuesday, October 5, 2021.
He is calling on the Speaker of Parliament to launch an investigation into the pass rate “to ascertain whether or not the pass rates and scores are based on actual performance of students during examinations, or as a result of lack of available infrastructure to accommodate the excess numbers, hence this petition”.
In 2017, less than 20 percent of the total candidates who sat the exams passed.
In 2018, only 9 percent passed while 128 out of 1,820 passed in 2019.
The National Democratic Congress (NDC) lawmaker described the 2020 figures as “worse” as only 549 lawyers were enrolled out the 1,045 who passed.
Mr Sosu said in line with the principles of transparency and accountability and effective separation of powers as guaranteed under the 1992 Constitution, the Committee, of which he is the Deputy Ranking Member, is best-placed to investigate the matter.
He wants the Committee to order the GLC to submit the raw scores of the recently written exams.
By Emmanuel Kwame Amoh|3news.com|Ghana