'Working on full time jobs a major cause of failure at law school'- Lecturer

Justice Srem Sai, a lecturer at the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA) has said that the mass failure of the law students at the Ghana School of Law can be attributed to the fact they are full time workers.

According to Mr Sai, currently, law students at the Ghana School of Law are people with full time employment with high positions unlike in the past where only a few of the students were working.

He made the comments while speaking on Accra based radio station Starr FM earlier today adding that the situation leaves the law students combining work with school less time to study.

He said, “inasmuch there is a general decline in the program itself, generally the law students will have to answer some of these questions too. Previously, you are in the law school hundred percent, you are not in school and working at the same time. But today, the trend has reversed. It’s only about 10 percent who are full time students, a lot of them are full time employees with high positions who are also studying law. Some have families as well. That means that you have less time to learn to make the grades”.

He also noted law education in general must be reviewed.

It would be recalled that, last year, 284 students who took the law exams had to repeat the entire program due to failure while 177 were referred.

The students failed mostly in Family law, Evidence and Advocacy and so far, only 64 students are known to have successfully passed the exams.

The papers included Criminal procedure, Civil procedure, company and commercial practice, law practice management, legal accountancy, evidence and interpretation, Conveyancing and drafting.

Last year, the General Legal Counsel  came under intense pressure following the leaking of entrance exams it was organizing for potential law graduates for the Ghana School of Law.