The leadership of the National Association of Law Students (NALS) have described the results of the 2020 Entrance Examination Results for admission to the Ghana School of Law (GSL) as progressive and commendable but believes there is still room for improvement.

This follows the publication by the Independent Examination Committee of the General Legal Council (GLC) of 1045 index numbers as those who passed the 2020 Law School Entrance Examination out of a total of 2720 candidates.

"The number deemed successful for admission, while progressive and commendable, is ultimately not enough. For law students across the country, it suffices as cause for excitement and reassures many among our ranks that the GLC is committed to resolve the issues surrounding access to legal education".

Although the NALS considers this to be "great progress made this year", they still believe that there is still more room for improvement, something they believe to be attainable in the short term".

In order for this to be attained, they have put forward 2 main suggestions for a total reform of Legal Education in the country; the decentralization of professional legal training; and the institution of a Ghana Bar Exam that will allow independent candidates i.e. LLB holders, the automatic opportunity to study the professional law course.

In their statement, the NALS reaffirmed its request for the Attorney-General and the Ministry of Justice to confirm and arrange as announced by the Finance Minister in the 2020 Budget statement, research on the implication of the current restrictive policy in accessing professional legal education in Ghana.

Last year, only 128 students out of 1,820 candidates passed the Ghana School of Law entrance exam, accounting for a mere 10 per cent.

This was followed by protests by some of the law students in the month of October 2019, who accused the General Legal Council (GCL) of a deliberate attempt to deny people access to legal education.

The Association, however, congratulated all successful candidates and reiterated its commitment to pursue reforms to ensure better access to legal education for all.