The aggrieved 499 candidates who sat for this year’s Ghana School of Law entrance Examination but did not ‘pass’ to be admitted have called on the powers that be in the country to ensure that they were admitted to pursue the professional law programme.
The authorities they called on include President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, Speaker of Parliament, Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin, the Chief Justice, KwasiAnin-Yeboah, the Ghana Bar Association, religious and traditional leaders.
According to the aggrieved 499 candidates, they passed the entrance exams in line with the admission criteria set by the General Legal Council (GLC) and the Independent Examination Committee (IEC) before they sat for the paper.
They claimed the pass mark for the entrance exam since it was introduced was 50 per cent from the two sections as communicated by the IEC ahead of the exams.
The IEC had explained that the pass mark must be a cumulative score of at least 25 per cent from either section of the paper.
But at a press conference in Accra yesterday, the aggrieved candidates said the IEC has given them a raw deal because at the time of sitting for the exams, the pass mark announced by the Committee, as advertised in the Daily Graphic on May 14, 2021 was 50 per cent without any further clarification.
“It is thus fair to conclude that the IEC/GLC has, from all indications, made representation to candidates and stakeholders that the pass mark for the entrance exams is 50 per cent and over and this meant a cumulative figure of 50 per cent. Simplicita!.
“Without doubt, this new criterion is a complete departure from the time-tested representation made by the school to candidates and the general public in respect of the meaning of the minimum 50 per cent pass mark,” spokesperson for the aggrieved candidates, Tony Baah, told the media.
He said even if the criteria for admission had changed after the committee’s publication, “fairness a d natural justice, which underpin every democratic society, demand that this new criterion be made known to us in our exam preparations; or at worse, it be communicated to us at the time of the exams by way of instructions on the question papers.”
If that was done, MrBaah said, students would have approached the exams differently to ensure they passed.
“You don’t change the rules of the game after the game had been played,” as doing so would be the height of injustice, he stated.
He revealed that per their audit of the raw scores of all 2,284 candidates who sat for the exams, “most of us in the 499 group obtained higher marks than some of the admitted 790 candidates who “supposedly” passed.
“For instance, how can you explain why a candidate who obtains more the 60 per cent in an exam is deemed to have failed and therefore not eligible for admission whereas another candidate who obtains 50 per cent in the same exams is deemed to have passed and therefore offered admission? Such logic.”
He hinted that the aggrieved candidates would on Wednesday October 20, 2021 join the planned demonstration of the National Association of Law Students to protest against the “injustices” at the Ghana Law School and to demand reforms to the country’s legal education system.
BY JULIUS YAO PETETSI
