The Attorney General, Godfred Yeboah Dame, says the General Legal Council (GLC) has not stated anywhere that the pass mark for the entrance exams into the law school is 50%.

In a letter addressed to the Speaker of Parliament following a resolution by Parliament directing the General Legal Council to admit some 499 students who allegedly passed but were denied admissions, the Justice Minister noted that it is an erroneous impression created that the pass mark was 50%.

In the 2021 entrance exams to the Ghana Law School, only 790 candidates out of the 2,820 who sat the exams were deemed to have satisfied the pass mark required to guarantee their admission to the only legal profession training institute in Ghana – the Ghana School of Law.

The 499 students contend that the pass mark for the entrance exams has always been 50% in both sections of the exams.

But, for this year’s exams, and unknown to the candidates before they took the exams, the rule has been changed to students getting at least 50% in both sections.

Parliament’s resolution read by the First Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Joseph Osei-Wusu read, “The General Legal Council is hereby directed to proceed and admit all the students who passed in accordance with the advertised rules of the examination.”

But the Attorney General noted in his letter to Parliament that nowhere did the General Legal Council in its advertisement say the pass mark was 50%.

“The notice in the Daily Graphic of May 14, 2021, inviting applications from suitably qualified Ghanaians for admission into the Ghana School of Law did not state a pass mark of 50% or any at all as a basis for admission.

“The notice stated that applicants may be granted admission if they have passed the entrance examination conducted by the GLC.

“The notice also did not state the manner in which a pass mark set by the GLC would be determined. It is clear; therefore, that contention that the “originally announced” or “advertised” pass mark was “50%” is erroneous and insupportable.