65% of lawyers called to Gambia Bar are Ghanaians who failed entrance exams – SRC President

The President of the Students Representative Council (SRC) of the Ghana School of Law, Mr Wonder Victor Kutor, has revealed that 65 per cent of lawyers called to the Gambia Bar this year are Ghanaians who failed the law entrance examinations in Ghana.

After Ghana failed them, he explained, they applied to study in the Gambia and were called to the Gambia Bar after completion.

Mr Kutor stated that failing an examination is not an indication that the students were below standard.

He has, therefore, called for an all-inclusive approach in dealing with the causes of the mass law school entrance examination failure in order to be able to deal with the situation properly.

He attributed the mass failure to, among other things, the limited time candidates have to enable them to prepare for the entrance examination.

In his view, inadequate preparation due to limited time is one of the leading causes of failure.

Mr Kutor indicated that when law students graduate in July and they sit for the exams in August, it will certainly not be enough for them to do adequate preparation.

His comments come after two thousand and thirty-four (2,034) LLB candidates who sat for the 2021/2021 academic year Ghana School of Law 2021 Entrance Exams failed in the exams.

Of the 2,824 students from the various law faculties across the country who sat for the exam, only 790 of them passed representing approximately 28% while the failure represents 72%.

Speaking on Tuesday, September 28, Mr Kutor said “You leave school in July and sit for exams in August and you are doing, let us say taxation or land law and you go and meet tort and constitutional law if you haven’t revised enough you will fail.

“So, we need to have a discussion as a nation. When students graduate in July you allow them to wait and apply the following year.

“Let is discuss this properly, Students graduated in July and they sat for exams in August. Was the preparation enough? This is not to defend the General Legal Council but I want us to have a holistic discussion on this matter as a nation going forward.

“We must not limit ourselves to pass and failure. It is not only about passing what happens in this country is that once they release the entrance results then we all start talking about the failure rate but let us be honest, which is why the SRC we have established the scholarship fund.

“I am glad to say that those who have passed can access the scholarship fund, a very transparent process. If people pass without the money to pay, then what is the point? So the discussion shouldn’t be pass rate or failure rate, it is also about the funding. When you enter the law school in terms of cost there is a big challenge.”

He added “I want to make a point respectfully, normally what happens is that when some are unable to entre they go to other jurisdictions, Gambia Rwanda  Nigeria and.

“I want to give this advice to the general public, to our colleagues,  who have not been able to entre that we know of such individuals who went to Rwanda and came but and were not admitted for post-call, they had to go to the Gambia when they came back the Gambia is recognized and they were admitted. So they have to check properly which institutions they ae going to.

“Now, on the back of this, one of the things the SRC will do is that we know this is a Ghanaian problem and ought to be given a Ghanaians solution.

“To say that students have failed entrance examination is not to say they are bad students. Just check the statistics 65 per cent of lawyers call to the Gambia bar this year,  are Ghanaians and these are people who failed the entrance exams and went to the Gambia.

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