The Member of Parliament for Tema Central, Yves Hanson-Nortey, is suggesting to the Ghana School of Law to outsource the professional training of law students in the country.
Commenting on the ongoing banter between Parliament and the Attorney General to get the 499 students admitted, Mr. Hanson-Nortey stated the Ghana School of Law can adopt the UK model of outsourcing professional law training to other institutions.
According to the Tema Central MP,;his suggestion, if implemented,;will help deal with the issue of lack of infrastructure and make legal education more accessible.
“So, the Ghana School of Law can still have that position like an Inns of Court, like the Lincoln’s Inn and then outsource the teaching and learning space to a third-party institution. In the UK,;they have BPP, University of laws,;in fact, about 17 or 18 of them. Some of them are just specialized in legal education,;like University of Wales. So, I don’t see why we cannot do that”.
Yves Hanson-Nortey
· Parliament willing to work towards increasing budgetary allocation to law school- Ayariga
· Parliament Directs GLC to Admit 499 law Students
His comments follow the Attorney General’s stance to still not admit the 499 students who were denied admission into the Ghana School of Law after attaining the 50% mark in their exams.
Mr. Hanson-Nortey cited an example that,;the UK for instance is training over 170,000 lawyers from all over the world through outsourcing training processes to different institutions.
50% pass mark good
Touching on the percentage for the pass mark, Mr. Hanson-Nortey averred that;the 50% pass mark was very good and ideal because other countries, citing the UK, has 40% as its pass mark for bar school entrance.
Commenting on Parliament’s involvement in the legal tussel, Mr. Hanson-Nortey said it was due to;the ‘back and forth’ nature of the law school entrance that the country has been dealing with for too long.
“People have attributed so many reasons to it and I know it’s a profession that people try to guard especially the standards to make sure that people are well trained so that they get the best out of it”.
Yves Hanson-Nortey
The MP indicated that what Parliament is seeking to achieve with this is to ensure that students have access to law education.
Minority files motion to remove AG
In a related development, the Minority in Parliament has filed a motion seeking the removal from office, the Attorney General, Godfred Yeboah Dame, following his failure to act on the House’s resolution to the General Legal Council (GLC) to admit the aggrieved 499 law students.
The resolution, passed last week with bipartisan support after the deputy Majority leader, Alexander Afenyo-Markin, and the deputy Minority leader, James Avedzi, made a case for it and placed a compulsion on the Attorney General and Minister of Justice to see to it that the GLC enforces the resolution.
However, in response, Godfred told Parliament it does not have the power to direct him to make sure that the General Legal Council and the Ghana School of Law admit 499 LLB students who achieved the 50% pass mark.
