Law entrance exams, interviews make no sense - Prof. Stephen Asare

A public interest lawyer, Professor Stephen Kwaku Asare has lambasted the Ghana Legal Council over what he describes as 'senseless', criteria for admission of students to the School of Law.

Prof. Stephen Asare indicated that the procedural approach of writing an entrance examination followed by an interview by the council was unconstitutional and not viable.

“I did a little bit of research of some of the people who appeared before the interview panel in 2015 and they told me that it focuses on three main areas; appearance, confidence and composure, three questions….. which in their mind is contemporary and general enough” he said.

Speaking on ‘Making sense of Ghana's Supreme Court ruling on the admission criteria to Professional Law Studies’ at the Accra City Hotel in the capital the Public interest lawyer bemoaned that “those who do not pass the interviews are not given reasons and next year when they show up to take the interviews, they say ‘no, you have to go back and take the entrance examination before you can get the interview again’, so it’s almost like the process is always restarting; it has no memory…. In my mind, setting aside all the legal issues, this is not the way to admit students to a law school.”

Earlier in a unanimous decision, the Supreme Court declared as unconstitutional a requirement by the General Legal Council that persons seeking to enter the Ghana School of Law need to pass an entrance examination, as well as an interview.

The court held that the additional requirement, which started in 2012, violated articles 11(7), 23, 296 (a) (b) and 18 (2) of the 1992 Constitution, as well as Legislative Instrument (LI) 1296 which spells out the criteria or qualification for admission to the school.

Per Regulation Two of the LI, qualifications for entry to the school are: being of good behaviour, having a degree conferred by the University of Ghana and any other university approved by the council and passing examinations in seven subjects approved by the council.