Ghana: Investigation launched after 90 per cent of law students fail exams

Ghana: Investigation launched after 90 per cent of law students fail exams

Legal authorities in Ghana have launched an investigation after more than 90 per cent of law students failed their recent bar exams.

Students at Ghana School of Law, the only institution accredited to train lawyers in the African country, have previously raised concerns with the Parliament of Ghana and Ghana Legal Council (GLC), including raising a petition earlier in the year.

Only nine per cent of the 727 students who sat the 2018 bar exam passed, down from 20 per cent in 2017.

Mrs Justice Sophia Adinyira, president of the Supreme Court of Ghana, has now been appointed by the GLC to lead an investigation into the law school’s failures, TV3 Ghana reports.

In a statement, the legal authority said: “The GLC wishes to assure the public that it is committed to ensuring the integrity of the Bar examination process and outcomes.”

Prior to the establishment of Ghana School of Law in 1958, all lawyers in Ghana were trained abroad, mostly at the Inns of Court in England.

The failures in legal education in the country are particularly alarming as the country of nearly 29 million people only has around 3,000 qualified lawyers.

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