The Deputy Ranking Member of the Constitutional, Legal, and Parliamentary Affairs Committee of Parliament has petitioned the Speaker of Parliament to investigate the mass failure recorded in the 2021 law school entrance examinations.

In Francis-Xavier Sosu’s petition, he asked the Speaker to order the General Legal Council (GLC) to submit raw scores of the students to Parliament’s Constitutional and Legal Affairs Committee for further probe.

The 2021 Law School Entrance Exams saw only 790 out of the 2,824 candidates pass to gain admission into the professional school.

According to Madina MP, the 28 per cent pass in this year’s admissions to the Ghana School of Law “represents a systemic problem that must be of concern to all democracy watchers, Parliament as an institution and everyone.”

He believes that investigating the failure will allow the country to ascertain whether the problem results from students’ performance or the lack of available infrastructure to accommodate the excess numbers.

“Article 37(1) of the 1992 Constitution provides that the State shall endeavor to secure and protect a social order founded on the ideals and principle of freedom, equality, justice, probity, and accountability as enshrined in Chapter 5 of this Constitution; and in particular, the State shall direct its policy towards ensuring every citizen has equality of rights, obligations, and opportunities before the law.”

“As such, there is the need for investigations to ascertain whether or not the pass rates and scores are based on the actual performance of students during examinations, or as a result of lack of available infrastructure to accommodate the excess numbers, hence this petition.”

Alleged exclusion of 499 students from successful candidates

The National Association of Law Students (NALS) disclosed in a press release that some law students failed their entrance examinations not because they did not pass but because there was an original intention to admit only 550 students.

The Association claims that 1,289 out of the 2,824 students who sat for the exams met the 50% pass mark yet, were excluded from the successful candidates.

“NALS regrets ascertaining thereto that contrary to the earlier results, some 1,289 out of the 2,824 candidates, representing 45.6%, obtained 50% aggregated score hitherto set as a pass mark.”

“Yet, there was a clear, very inexcusable exclusion of some 499 candidates, constituting 39% of candidates who obtained this 50% and 18% of all the candidates,” NALS alleged in a statement.