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Students of the Ghana School of Law have written to the Speaker of Parliament, Professor Aaron Mike Oquaye, to intervene in the “unprecedented massive failures in the Professional Law Examinations”. Aside the 2017 results of only 91 out of 600 students passing their Professional Law Course Examinations, only 64 out of 525 students passed the 2018 exams. It is on record as the worst in the recent history of the School.
According to the petition, which has also been sent to the Attorney General, the Chairman of the Council of State and the President of the National House of Chiefs, there are a lot of challenges with the Independent Examinations Committee (IEC). “Mr. Speaker, the IEC operates to exclude lecturers from the examination process,” the petition dated March 4, 2019 read in part. “By its modus operandi, lecturers neither set examination questions nor mark scripts.” According to the students, the situation makes some of the questions set by the IEC, formerly known as IEB, fall outside the scope of their course outline. They claim even some of the lecturers, while discussing the examination questions, point out defects. Going further, the students claim there have been errors in the tallying of exam results as some lawyers who are supposed to mark scripts give them to their juniors. “In addition to the above, the IEC delays unduly in the release of examination results since it does not hold itself to any timelines for the release of results.” The students therefore want the Speaker to conduct a “thorough” investigation and audit into the activities of IEB. They also want all failed scripts in Family Law and Practice, Company Law and Commercial Practice be re-marked at no cost to them. They also want the cost of re-marking of scripts in other courses be reduced from GH¢3,000 to GH¢500. They have assured Parliament of an unflinching cooperation in “finding a lasting solution to the problem of massive failure of students in the Professional Law Examinations and other challenges affecting legal education in Ghana”. By Emmanuel Kwame Amoh|3news.com|Ghana Follow @kwame_amoh]]>