Over 800 Ghana School of Law candidates pass final exams

Some 850 candidates of the Ghana School of Law are fit to be considered for the Ghana Bar on November 11, 2022, provided they meet other requirements, such as “Good character”. This is after the final results for the examinations conducted in July by the Independent Examination Committee (IEC) of the General Legal Council (GLC) to select qualified students of the Ghana School of Law (GSL) to be called to the Bar this year, were released on Thursday, November 3. The IEC is an institution created under the authority of Parliament in 2018 with the sole mandate to conduct and manage entrance examinations for admitting law students and other internal exams taken by the students. In a Citi News report sighted by GhanaWeb, the results released show that some 81 per cent of the over 800 Part Two Professional Law Course students – defined as candidates who started and completed their professional law course on various campuses of the GSL – have passed. Also, 18 per cent of candidates who sat for the exams failed at least one or more of the papers written in July 2022. The percentage of successful candidates belonging to the post-call law class – defined as persons who have been called to the Bar in other common law jurisdictions such as the United Kingdom, the United States of America, Nigeria and The Gambia was, however, lower; at over 60 per cent. Around 33 per cent of post-call candidates failed at least one paper, meaning they are ineligible to be considered for the Ghana Bar this year. In total, some 850 candidates of the Ghana School of Law are fit to be considered for the Ghana Bar on November 11, 2022, provided they have equally met other requirements, such as “Good character”. To pass a paper, a candidate must obtain at least 50 per cent of the 100 available marks per paper. In cases where a candidate fails two papers or less, that candidate will be “referred” whereas if a candidate fails three or more papers, the candidate is repeated for the entire class because it is considered as a “fail”. In September this year, the GLC announced it would “Call” newly qualified lawyers to the Ghana Bar on Friday, 11 November 2022. On Tuesday, November 8, 2022, the GLC is expected to hold a major dinner in honour of all the successful candidates. PEN/SARA