Ghana Law School collapsing - Ansah Asare

Dr. Ansah Asare, former Director of the Ghana Law School (GLS), says the country would be heading for danger if measures are not taken to establish a new Law School to complement the only existing campus in Accra.

?I strongly believe that the only Law School in Accra has served its useful purpose and there is the need for the central government to take the bull by the horn and engage the relevant stakeholders for the necessary steps to be taken.

?The current situation for me is not the best. There should be several options for law graduates to resort to, if one does not get admission at the Ghana Law School,? Dr Asare stated on Joy Fm, an Accra based radio station on Friday.

The law luminary's comments comes in the wake of some law graduates of the University of Ghana, Legon, and the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), who were refused admission into the GLS, and have resolved to seek redress in the court .

And according to the school authorities, the existing facilities would not be able to absorb more students, thereby rationalizing the intake of students this year.

According to Dr. Asare, with the exception of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah who helped in putting up the school in 1958, successive governments have done little to reform the school, stressing that ?the situation requires rapid response.?

He observed that Ghana's reputation and the standard it has set in legal training and practice over the years in the sub-region may suffer a major set-back, if nothing is done to salvage the situation from further deterioration.

Dr. Ansah Asare added that ?When the school took off in 1958, 108 students were first enrolled, but to ensure that some standards are set in the legal education, only 9 of the students made the mark to be called to the bar at that time.?

?And we should ask ourselves if in 1958 over 100 students were enrolled what happened to us to be able to only admit 400 students after 50 years and more importantly now that the population of the country has gone up astronomically,?

He said government has to resource the Law Faculty of the KNUST to reach a professional status that would be able to produce professional lawyers.

?And that not withstanding, the Cape Coast University also ought to be provided with the requisite facilities that will also be able to train professional lawyers, because there are lots of people who want to be legal practitioners,? stated Dr Ansah Asare.

It was in this direction that he called on the National Democratic Congress (NDC) government, to ? as a matter of urgency ? take pragmatic steps to rectify the situation to make Ghana one of the most suitable destinations for legal trainees in Africa.