By Iddi Yire, GNA
Accra, July 28, GNA – A draft Legal Education Reform Bill is to be submitted to Cabinet next month for the Government to replace the Ghana School of Law system with National Bar Exams.
Under the current dispensation of training lawyers, the Ghana School of Law is the only institution in the country that had the mandate to train professional lawyers.
The National Bar Exams, the Minister of Justice and Attorney-General said, were to ensure that universities with law faculties or law schools would have the mandate to train and produce lawyers for the nation.
Speaking at the Government Accountability Series press conference at the Presidency in Accra, Dr Ayine said the Government had promised to reset legal education, which was very important.
He noted that in that promise, there would be a reform of legal education in such a way that access would be expanded.
Dr Ayine said: “Currently we have thousands of LLB (Bachelor of Laws) holders who cannot get to become lawyers because, they cannot enter the Ghana school of law.
“The Bill that I have drafted which will submitted to cabinet next month is to the effect that we are going to literally abolish the Ghana School of Law system.
“Basically, what we are going to do is that we will have three years of legal education to obtain your degree, that is the LLB.
“After obtaining the LLB degree, you now do what we call the clinical legal education program or the Bar practice course in the University where you got your LLB for another academic year. And then you write what we termed the National Bar Examination.”
The Attorney-General said everybody who had the LLB and who had taken the Bar Practice course in their university would be entitled to write the National Bar Exams.
“So, it will be like what the accountants do. Like once you qualify to write the examination, the Chartered Institute of Accountants will administer the exams and everybody can write,” he said.
He added: “And if you pass, you become a chartered accountant. That is what is going to happen in order to expand legal education in the country.”
GNA
Edited by Benjamin Mensah