Three professionals engaged in a hot debate as to which profession is the oldest on earth – doctors, engineers and lawyers.
The doctor spoke first. He said, gentlemen, medicine is the oldest profession on earth, because Almighty God made a deep sleep fall on Adam, and He took one of his ribs to create a woman. That act of removing a rib from the sleeping Adam was surgery – medicine – so the medical profession is the oldest career.
The engineer laughed at the doctor, and said, look here, doc, it is true what God did was surgery, but don’t forget that God creating man, and woman, was the last thing he did in creation. In the very beginning, there was CONFUSION, and God brought order into the confusion. The art of bringing order into CONFUSION is ENGINEERING!!!
The lawyer did no t even raise his head. He just quickly whispered; WHO BROUGHT THE CONFUSION IN THE FIRST PLACE??
Reader, wherever there are LAWYERS, you can be sure that “CONFUSION” will be there, but without LAW, society will degenerate into the jungle situation.
Against this background, very disturbing news that the Ghana Law School which trains lawyers is enmeshed in total confusion can be hardly surprising. Our very synonym almost is “CONFUSION”. Which of us is right?
How on earth can 600 students write exams and as many as 300 have failed the exams? Either the teachers are not correct or the students are not serious – neither of the two is the situation.
So, what is the problem?
Following the attainment of independence, President Kwame Nkrumah noted that all Ghanaian lawyers were trained abroad. Why should that be so? Why can’t we train our own lawyers? And so Ghana Law School was born and the infrastructure put up, just behind the Supreme Court, at Makola.
But there was the University of Ghana, Legon which had a law faculty. So a perfect arrangement was put in place, that if you want to be a lawyer, go to Legon to study for LLB degree, first, then come over to the Ghana Law School at Makola to do PROFESSIONAL training. Legon was for theory and Makola was for Practicals.
I remember so well, those days in Legon, when the professional law students of our time, Kofi Kumado, Bram Larbi, Ato Dadzie… every morning they will wear black suits and assemble at Balme Library then a bus will pick them out of Legon to town, for practicals at Makola Law School.
How do you treat those students who have already taken a degree in History, Mathematics, Engineering and so on but they want to do law? Okay. Let them go to Legon and instead of doing a degree course let them rather do Qualifying Certificate in Law, for two years, then come over to Makola to do practicals, just like degree students.
This cooperation could not continue forever because Ghana’s population was growing, more students wanted to do law, new graduates wanted to also enter law, so changes had to be made. The very first step was that henceforth professional law students will no more be considered as students of Legon – clear break between Legon and Makola – this policy started with my batch – in 1977.
Then why should Legon alone have a law Faculty? Why can’t KNUST also offer law degree? How about UCC? And GIMPA?
Why can’t private Universities like Ansa Asare’s Mountcrest University do law? Wisconsin University. Ashesi University. Zenith University….. suddenly over ten university colleges were producing law degree holders – but Makola alone cannot contain them.
So, how can we cut down the number of law school intake? The issue is not cutting down the number, but ensuring that only correct law degree students entered Ghana Law School – so, two key decisions were taken – diversify Ghana Law School campus into Legon, Makola, KNUST and GIMPA. One law school with five campuses, let them write the same exam, and then subject all law degree holders to law school entrance examination….becoming problematic?
There was a large outcry from the general public. How can I get a law degree and be told that I have failed entrance exam to the law school? Finally the matter ended up at the Supreme Court which ruled against holding law school entrance exams.
While trying to resolve the issue of admittance to the law school, the issue of examining the students to graduate them also arose. How can five campuses offering the same course by different lecturers write the SAME examination? Where will emphasis be made?
So, they came up with Independent Examiners Board, made up of faceless Legal luminaries – are they Judges? Or senior lawyers? Or lecturers?
And so we have a ridiculous situation where as many as 600 students write an exam and less that 300 students pass, with several referrals, and several to repeat the whole course again?. Terrible. Unrealistic. Scandalous. Most unacceptable.
Definitely something ought to be done about it.
In designing the road map out of the confusion, the very first step is to look at the whole issue of Legal training. I strongly recommend that the Board of Legal Education of the General Legal Council MUST APPROVE of every institution in Ghana that wants to offer law degrees. Very very crucial.
Because, that is where the problem really lies.
There should be nothing like Qualifying Certificate in Law. Rather, there should be only two in Law Degree and Professional Certificate – period. Monitor all these schools colleges institutions and campuses that offer law degrees, and insist on having external examiners – to ensure that any graduate in law must be a potential lawyer. Period.
The Professional law course must remain strictly professional – doing CIVIL PROCEDURE, INTERPRETATION CONVEYANCING AND DRAFTING, LEGAL ACCOUNTANCY, LAW OF EVIDENCE AND ADVOCACY AND ETHICS. Period.
All other subjects must be taught at the degree level – Family law, Taxation, Company Law etc.
I am talking like this because if lecturers in a University, at KNUST or GIMPA can give First Class to a law student, why can’t those same lecturers declare that the student has also passed the practicals and start practicing as a lawyer?
Abolish the so – called Independent Examiners’ Board. Allow each of the campuses of the law school to be autonomous, to set their own questions and pass their own students. Insist on standards at the degree level, and the practicals will follow as a matter of course.
Humbly submitted.
Written by
Nkrabeah Effah Dartey